Foreclosures in US could grow much bigger over the coming year

Below is an article by Renae Merle, Washington Post Staff Writer - Friday, March 12, 2010

New round of foreclosures threatens housing market

The housing market is facing swelling ranks of homeowners who are seriously delinquent but have yet to lose their homes, and this is threatening a new wave of foreclosures that could hit just as the real estate market has begun to stabilize.

About 5 million to 7 million properties are potentially eligible for foreclosure but have not yet been repossessed and put up for sale. Some economists project it could take nearly three years before all these homes have been put on the market and purchased by new owners. And the number of pending foreclosures could grow much bigger over the coming year as more distressed borrowers become delinquent and then, if they can't obtain mortgage relief, wade through the foreclosure process, which often takes more than a year to complete.

Read the article here>.

No help in sight, more homeowners walk away

By David Streitfeld, The New York Times

About 5.1 million will own a home valued below 75 percent of what is owed

In 2006, Benjamin Koellmann bought a condominium in Miami Beach. By his calculation, it will be about the year 2025 before he can sell his modest home for what he paid. Or maybe 2040.

“People like me are beginning to feel like suckers,” Mr. Koellmann said. “Why not let it go in default and rent a better place for less?”

After three years of plunging real estate values, after the bailouts of the bankers and the revival of their million-dollar bonuses, after the Obama administration’s loan modification plan raised the expectations of many but satisfied only a few, a large group of distressed homeowners is wondering the same thing.

Read the full article here>.

Pace of decline in home prices sets a record

An article collection by Vancouver Home Mortgage.

James R. Hagerty and Kelly Evans on 28 Dec 2007 posted in the Wall Street Journal:

A deepening slump in the housing market threatens to damp consumer spending.

"A closely watched gauge of U.S. home prices shows they are falling sharply across most of the nation, as a deepening slump in the housing market threatens to damp consumer spending.

Home prices in 10 major metropolitan areas in October were down 6.7% from a year earlier, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home-price indexes, released yesterday by credit-rating firm Standard & Poor's. That exceeded the previous record year-to-year decline of 6.3% in April 1991, when the economy was emerging from a recession. (See a PDF summary of the report.)

New statistics from the Census Bureau, meanwhile, indicate a slowdown in the number of Americans moving to states that led the housing boom, including Nevada, Florida and Arizona.

The silver lining behind the latest home-price data is that they signal the market is making what most economists see as a necessary adjustment, dragging home prices back into closer alignment with Americans' ability to pay. The market is working its way "back to reality," says David Seiders, chief economist of the National Association of Home Builders. He thinks house prices will bottom out by early 2009".

Click here to read the full article...

US Credit Crisis - It's A Mess!

Here are two interesting articles by Diane Francis in today's (Nov 20, 2007) Financial Post...

- Sub-Prime Scandal: New Catastrophe Around the Corner

- Subprime Mortgage and Debt Fraud: Worse than Enron and Bre-X

Meanwhile, MSNBC's reported "Foreclosures hit some cities harder than others" and expected the coming rise in home foreclosures is expected to drag down property values by some $223 billion.