Thursday, April 14, 2011

Are foreclosures picking up?

I've spotted some troubling signs in our recording statistics. Since October 2010, there's been a steep decline in the number of foreclosures each month when compared to the same month from a year before. That trend continued through the first quarter of this year. From January 1, 2011 to April 13, 2011, the number of Orders of Notice was 191 compared to 460 for the same period in 2010. A decline in Foreclosure Deeds also occurred with a drop from 195 in 2010 to just 91 in 2011.

The early part of April departs from this trend, however. While foreclosure deeds are still down - 34 were recorded between April 1, 2010 and April 13, 2010 when only 12 where recorded between April 1 and 13 of 2011, the number of Orders of Notice recorded has risen, from 39 in the first 13 days of April 2010 to 48 thus far in April 2011.

We'll watch this trend closely since an upsurge in foreclosures this spring and summer would be crippling to any revival of the housing market.

4 comments:

Craig H said...

"Crippling"???

One of the reasons the Japanese economy never quite recovered from their housing bubble bursting 20 years ago was that their troubled assets (i.e. bad mortgages) were never accurately valued and removed from their lenders' books, nor were the underlying properties allowed to reach the market at their true values so that people who rightfully should be able to afford them at their correct prices could buy them. (i.e. at foreclosure auction or at market prices influenced by foreclosure auction).

We here in this country are allowing that very same mistake to be perpetuated by fearing a free and open market's response to natural and healthy market conditions.

Crippling? No, liberating. It bothers me every day to think of those who otherwise would be in their own affordable home today, except for the continuing greed and complicity of bankers, politicians and real estate professionals who use words like "crippling" to obfuscate a better outcome.

Dick said...

Other than the cheap shot at me, I don't necessarily disagree with the thrust of your comment. I've said for a long time that the best thing we can do for a lot of people is accelerate the foreclosure process, get them out of their money draining homes, and get them into decent rental housing so they can get on with their lives. Dragging this process out is what's crippling a recovery of the housing market.

Craig H said...

I had not intended this to be a "shot", cheap or otherwise, at anything other than the chosen word--I have nothing but the utmost respect for your efforts to share information from the registry with us online readers, and would hate to be thought to be ungrateful, or disrespectful. Please accept an apology for any failure on the part of the writer to express his point in the manner it was intended.

Please continue to share!

Anonymous said...

Well here come the big experts with all their opinions.

Rental homes are a lot more expensive than free homes bad karma. Don't ever forget that. ASnd the last thing I want with 10 homes on the market is a flood of new foreclosures.

You guys need to zip it.