U.S. Home Seizures Rise 38% to Record as Banks Process Backlog

[The Straight Story]

U.S. Home Seizures Rise 38% to Record as Banks Process Backlog

July 15 (Bloomberg) -- A record 269,962 U.S. homes were seized from delinquent owners in the second quarter as lenders set a pace to claim more than 1 million properties by the end of 2010, according to RealtyTrac Inc.

Home seizures climbed 38 percent from a year earlier and 5 percent from the first quarter, the Irvine, California-based data company said today in a statement. More than 1.65 million properties received a foreclosure filing, including notices of default, auction and bank repossession, in the first half. That was up 8 percent from the first six months of 2009.

“Foreclosures haven’t peaked yet,” Nicolas Retsinas, director of Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said in a telephone interview. Unemployment suggests that bank repossessions may climb for another six to nine months, he said.

Waning consumer confidence and the jobless rate, which was 9.5 percent in June, are holding back a housing recovery. The expiration of a federal tax credit for homebuyers also cut demand, even as average borrowing costs for a 30-year fixed-rate loan set record lows. The rate was 4.57 percent last week, according to McLean, Virginia-based mortgage finance company Freddie Mac.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-07-15/u-s-home-seizures-rise-38-to-record-as-banks-process-backlog.html

[Hell Hath No Fury]

1. Which means more houses dumped onto the market ---

for sale, which means even lower housing values. :( We had wildly inflated housing prices here in CA, but the current house glut is killing people in places like Tahoe who are trying to sell.

[Earth_First]

2. I'm sorry, but I'm inclined to believe those who are in Tahoe are selling vacation homes...

not primary residences.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

5. My Mom has lived there for 20+ years --

and has to leave because she can no longer afford to live there. We are in a world of hurt thinking about getting her house ready for sale next year. The market is in a free fall, there is a massive glut of homes priced tens of thousands of dollars under market value to get them to move -- it is not pretty at all.

Yes, there are a lot of vacation houses that were bought at the 2006 height on the market but there just as many longtime locals (especially seniors who nened to move off the hill for health reasons and families facing a crashed job market) who need to move on that are being effected badly by this mess.

[Earth_First]

6. Well certainly good luck to your mother...

as well as the locals who have been priced out via taxes, cost of living, et al.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

7. Thank you for your good wishes.

:hi:

[ParkieDem]

3. Of course they haven't peaked.

House prices in these places skyrocketed beyond anything rational. And many of those homes are still unaffordable to the average family in the (ever-shrinking) middle class.

I do feel for those who were duped into taking out an interest-only ARM with a super-low teaser, but falling house prices are good for those responsible people who are just now looking to buy.

[leveymg]

4. Why this wave of foreclosures is treated as anything other than a national crisis, I don't know.

Some people view it merely as a buying opportunity. The Old Man Potter School of Economics must be well-endowed.