homesmillbrae.com » Bank Repossessions

Foreclosures fall even as judges ramp up

Sat, 13 Jul 2013 02:55:57 +0000

U.S. foreclosure activity in June fell to the lowest level since December of 2006, but certain states are seeing a rise in activity, as judges work through tremendous backlogs of delinquent loans. Close to 128,000 properties received some kind of foreclosure filing in June, down 35 percent from a year ago, according to a new report from online foreclosure sales and analytics company RealtyTrac. Newly started foreclosures fell 21 percent month-to-month to the lowest level since the end of 2005.

Bank repossessions, the final stage of the foreclosure process, fell 9 percent month-to-month and were down 35 percent from a year ago. Still the numbers are on pace for nearly a half a million properties to be repossessed in 2013. That’s an improvement, but still well above normal levels.

(Read More: Dire Predictions For Housing Recovery)

The picture is also mixed geographically – Arkansas (up 143 percent), Oklahoma (up 103 percent), Maryland (up 74 percent), Washington (up 71 percent), New Jersey (up 33 percent), and New York (up 21 percent) –as states that require a judge in the foreclosure process as well as those with new laws protecting borrowers, are seeing a spike in repossessions.

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100877414

Foreclosures Fall Even as Judges Ramp Up

Thu, 11 Jul 2013 14:49:56 +0000

(Read More: Dire Predictions For Housing Recovery)

“The increases in judicial foreclosure auctions demonstrate that these delayed foreclosure cases are now being moved more quickly through to foreclosure completion,” notes RealtyTrac’s Daren Blomquist in the report.

(Read More: Map: Tracking the US Real Estate Recovery)

“Given the rising home prices in most of these markets, it is an opportune time for lenders to dispose of these distressed properties, either at the foreclosure auction to a third-party buyer, or by repossessing the property at the auction and subsequently selling it as a bank-owned home.”

Judicial foreclosure auctions were up 34 percent from June of 2012, as Realtors report “brisk” sales of these distressed properties. Investors and regular buyers have been competing for a decreasing supply of properties. Nationwide, inventories of all homes are down dramatically, as a large number of underwater borrowers and borrowers with very little home equity are still unable to sell.

(Read More: Apartments Reap Rewards of Rising Rates)

Florida, Nevada, Illinois, Ohio and Georgia posted the top five state foreclosure rates for the first half of the year, according to RealtyTrac.

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100877414

As Prices Rise, Banks Repossess More Homes

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 19:18:50 +0000

“Inventory will likely remain below year-ago levels for a while yet, as builders ramp up capacity and sellers wait to squeeze every drop of equity from their home before listing,” Zillow’s chief economist Stan Humphries said in a release. “But a corner has been turned. Going forward, as this new supply makes its way to market, we expect the pace of home value appreciation to slow down from unsustainably high annual levels of 5 percent or above to more moderate levels closer to historic norms of 3 percent or 4 percent.”

(Read More: Short Supply Has Home Sales ‘Squeaking’ Out Gains)

While Humphries does not make the connection to rising bank repossessions in the report, his numbers do. They show inventory easing much more on the low end of the market, where distressed homes tend to be.

“The greatest year-over-year decreases in inventory were among more expensive homes, with the availability of top-tier and middle-tier properties each falling 15.7 percent year over year. The number of bottom-tier properties for sale on Zillow nationwide fell only 2.5 percent in early June compared to June 2012.”

As more bank-owned homes hit the market, inventories are likely to turn positive again in the near future.

—By CNBC’s Diana Olick. Follow her on Twitter @Diana_Olick or on Facebook at facebook.com/DianaOlickCNBC.

Questions? Comments? RealtyCheck@cnbc.com

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100812845

Higher-End Homes Finally Selling Again

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 17:59:50 +0000

“While there’s still a risk that the fiscal cliff will derail the housing recovery, the balance between supply and demand suggests that, if anything, the risks around our forecast of a 5 percent increase in house prices next year are on the upside,” notes Paul Diggle of Capital Economics.

The shift in the sales mix is also largely due to a drop in the number of distressed homes for sale. Foreclosures and short sales made up just 22 percent of home sales in November, according to the Realtors, the lowest share in five years. Much of that is due to a lack of supply on the distressed side, as investors continue to compete for these properties to take advantage of the still-lucrative rental market.

The Realtors claim the distressed share of sales will continue to decline in 2013, due to fewer seriously delinquent loans, but banks are now ramping up foreclosures of long-delayed delinquent loans, so there could be another bump in that supply before it finally falls dramatically. Bank repossessionsjumped 11 percent month-to-month in November and saw the first annual increase since 2010, according to RealtyTrac.

Overall, the supply of all homes nationally is at its lowest level in 7 years,, just 4.8 months’ worth at the current sales pace.

(Read More: Best US HousingMarkets for Buyers and Sellers)

“With the homebuyer affordability index near multi-decade highs combined with decent job creation at the same time renting has gotten more expensive — all lead to a continued improvement in sales,” writes Peter Boockvar of Miller Tabak. “This said, sales are still 30 percent below the bubble highs and are still where they were in 1998, both pointing to the degree of possible improvement ahead but also evidence of the damage that was done where historically the pace of recovery takes time.”

(Read More: New Nightmare forHome Builders: Not Enough Skilled Workers)

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100331527

San Francisco Leads Nation in Foreclosure Reduction

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 19:54:14 +0000

Home News San Francisco Leads Nation in Foreclosure Reduction

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By Brandon Cornett | November 1, 2012
© 2012, All rights reserved

Trending: Mortgage Rates are Rising
On August 16, 2012, the average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage rose to 3.62%. What kind of rate can you get?

Conventional:
FHA:

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Colorful houses in San Francisco. Ian Ransley.

The San Francisco housing market continues to recover, and in more ways than one.

New research shows that foreclosure activity has dropped significantly across the Bay Area. This will support home prices and increase market stability going forward.

The Federal Reserve recently published a positive outlook for the San Francisco metropolitan-area housing market. Among other things, it predicted strong demand for homes into 2013. That’s good news for sellers.

Here’s more good news for homeowners in the area. Foreclosure filings are receding — and fast.

36% Drop in San Francisco Foreclosures

Last week, RealtyTrac released their Metropolitan Foreclosure Market Report for the third quarter of 2012. Among the nation’s largest metro areas, San Francisco experienced the largest reduction in foreclosure activity. Third-quarter foreclosure filings fell 36%, compared to the same time last year.

RealtyTrac’s report included all properties with at least one foreclosure filing, across all three phases of the foreclosure process — defaults, auctions, and bank repossessions. In total, there were 9,798 filings in the San Francisco metro area, during the third quarter of 2012. That marks a 3% reduction from the previous quarter, and a 36% reduction from the same period in 2011.

Typically, a major reduction in foreclosure activity helps to stabilize the market in two ways. First, we have an overall drop in the number of homes for sale. With a consistent level of demand, a drop in supply will put upward pressure on home prices.

Secondly, we have less price erosion resulting from distressed properties. Foreclosure homes are often priced and sold below their market values. So they end up as low-end comps, or comparable sales, putting downward pressure on home prices. Thus, the San Francisco real estate market benefits in two ways from this trend.

On the broader stage, this is just one of several factors boosting Bay Area home prices. The metro-area unemployment rate hit 7.4% in August, down from a recession high of 10.1% in January 2010. Housing inventory has fallen across the board, not just in the foreclosure sector. Meanwhile, demand is growing among investors and ‘regular’ home buyers alike.

Homes are Selling Faster, and for More

According to data provided by ZipRealty, San Francisco’s real estate market is still bustling. Home sales typically drop off in the fall, after the summer buying ‘season.’ But that doesn’t seem to be the case here. In most Bay Area counties, homes sold faster this September compared to last. List prices and sale prices both rose at the same time.

Within San Francisco County, the median number of days on market (DOM) was 40 days in September. That marks an 18% decline from the same time last year. At 12 days, Santa Clara County had the lowest median DOM for the Bay Area (it’s no wonder prices are jumping in places like Saratoga). The median DOM declined in eight of the nine Bay-Area counties over the last year. Only Solano County saw an increase in this metric.

The median listing price rose in eight of nine counties as well, again with exception of Solano County. Median selling prices rose in all nine counties over the last year. This is according to data from ZipRealty, a real estate company headquartered in Emeryville, California.

The latest SP/Case-Shiller Home Price Index was released the day before Halloween. According to that report, home prices rose 5.3% across the San Francisco metro area, from August 2011 to August 2012.

While California seems to be leading the recovery, it’s becoming a national trend. At the monthly level, prices rose in 19 of the 20 major metro areas tracked by Case-Shiller. “The sustained good news in home prices over the past five months makes us optimistic for continued recovery in the housing market,” said David M. Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at SP Dow Jones Indices.

Filed under San Francisco

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Article source: http://www.homebuyinginstitute.com/news/san-francisco-foreclosure-reduction-275/

Foreclosures Plunge, but New States Now Suffer

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 18:52:18 +0000

In another sign that the still shaky housing recovery might be finding its footing, foreclosure filings in some of the hardest hit states of the housing crash have plummeted dramatically, and overall the nation is seeing the lowest level of foreclosure activity since 2007.

Foreclosure filings, which include notices of default, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions, were reported on 531,576 U.S. properties during the third quarter of this year, according to RealtyTrac, a foreclosure sales and data website.

That is a decrease of 5 percent from the second quarter and a decrease of 13 percent from the third quarter of 2011. One in every 248 U.S. housing units with a foreclosure filing during the quarter.

“We’ve been waiting for the other foreclosure shoe to drop since late 2010, when questionable foreclosure practices slowed activity to a crawl in many areas, but that other shoe is instead being carefully lowered to the floor and therefore making little noise in the housing market — at least at a national level,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. “Make no mistake, however, the other shoe is dropping quite loudly in certain states, primarily those where foreclosure activity was held back the most last year.

There is fast becoming a large divide in foreclosure activity between states that require a judge in the foreclosure process and those that don’t. The latter, which include formerly hard-hit states like California, Michigan and Arizona, are non-judicial, and foreclosures there have cleared the process faster. In states like New York, Florida, New Jersey, Ohio, and Illinois, where a judge is required, the picture is still bleak. (Read More: Top States for Business 2012.)

Foreclosure activity jumped on a year-over-year basis in 14 out of the 26 judicial foreclosure states. New Jersey saw a 130 percent increase, New York a 53 percent jump and Pennsylvania a 35 percent increase. This will make it harder for overall home prices to improve in those states, as distressed home sales bring values down. (Read More: Why Him Refinancing Boom Is Different This Time.)

It is a far different story in California, where overall foreclosure numbers are still high, but are down 45 percent from a year ago, according to RealtyTrac. Eager investors, as in Arizona, are standing ready to buy distressed properties, but they are finding little supply, and that is putting upward pressure on prices at the low end.

The inventory of lower-priced homes, in fact, is down more than 40 percent in California from a year ago, according to a new report from Zillow
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]. That is making it harder for first-time home buyers, who are in competition with often all-cash investors.

“First-time homebuyers are being squeezed out of the market by falling inventory and the rapid influx of investors looking to buy basic homes to rent out to the growing population of people who have recently been foreclosed upon,” said Stan Humphries, Zillow chief economist. “Investors are paying in cash and can close sooner, which is more favorable to banks and homeowners looking to sell.” (Read More: Apartment Demand Ebbs as ‘Avalanche’ of New Units Open.)

Supplies of lower priced homes are also down nationwide, 15 percent, according to Zillow, but the numbers differ dramatically state-to-state. While investors have focused on the markets out West and Florida, where the housing crash hit hardest, they may now have to turn to new locations, where they will find better deals. As home prices rise in Arizona, Nevada and California, the margins for profit shrink.

Make no mistake, despite nine consecutive quarters of annual drops in foreclosure activity, there are still 3.4 million homes that have either delinquent loans or are already in the foreclosure process, according to LPS Applied Analytics. Volumes of distressed properties will jump dramatically in judicial states throughout 2013, according to several surveys, so while the overall housing market is improving, recovery, like everything else in real estate, will be highly local.

—By CNBC’s Diana Olick; Follow Her on Twitter @Diana_Olick and Facebook.

Questions? Comments?

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/49371943?__source=RSS*blog*&par=RSS

New Foreclosure Numbers: Vallejo-Fairfield Fourth Highest in the Nation

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 06:43:52 +0000

Real estate signs in front of homes for sale March 23, 2010 in San Francisco. Justin Sullivan/Getty

One out of every 140 housing units in the Vallejo-Fairfield metro area is facing foreclosure, according to the latest numbers from RealtyTrac’s U.S. Foreclosure Market Report for July 2011, making the North Bay region the fourth most-impacted in the country. This is a 33 percent jump for the region since last month.

Statewide, the foreclosure activity rate is one out of every 239 housing units, marking a 4 percent increase for California since last month, but a 16 percent decrease compared with July 2010.

Nationally, the rate of foreclosure has decreased 4 percent since June and 35 percent since last year.

But RealtyTrac’s Daren Blomquist told KQED intern Nick Fountain that the decrease in foreclosure activity is not necessarily as good as it seems.

“We have to say that there’s no marked improvement in the economy or the jobs market or the housing market that is causing this improvement in the foreclosure picture,” he said.

Blomquist said the national decline, which has been going on for 10 months, is primarily due to a slow down in processing of foreclosures as a result of of the “havoc” created last October when lenders “got into hot water using slopping paperwork and documentation.”

“So, at this point, the decline is more of a short-term fix,” he said.

Locally, San Francisco County showed a 39 percent increase in foreclosure activity since June, which Blomquist attributed to a jump in bank repossessions. Similarly, activity this month in Contra Costa County increased 17 percent and Alameda County 15 percent.

But several regions outside the Bay Area are faring far worse. While the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont metro area ranks 28th nationally in foreclosure rates and Vallejo-Fairfield ranks fourth, the Stockton area ranks second. There, foreclosure activity increased 57 percent from June to July, to a rate of one in every 124 homes.

Check out the chart below, created by Fountain and online producer Lisa Pickoff-White, to see how some California counties fare in the new report.

For more on the Bay Area housing market, listen to Wednesday’s Forum program.

Article source: http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/2011/08/11/new-foreclosure-numbers-vallejo-fairfield-fourth-highest-in-the-nation/

Foreclosure Delays Plague Housing Recovery

Thu, 12 May 2011 11:55:39 +0000

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Foreclosure activity decreased in April for the seventh straight month, bringing total foreclosure activity to a 40-month low, according to a new report from RealtyTrac. This is not to say that default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions aren’t running well above the norms, with one in every 593 US households receiving a foreclosure filing in April. The numbers are actually quite deceptive.

“This slowdown continues to be largely the result of massive delays in processing foreclosures, rather than the result of a housing recovery that is lifting people out of foreclosure,” notes RealtyTrac CEO James Saccacio in a statement.

There are currently 3.7 million loans that are 90 days or more delinquent, according to RealtyTrac’s Rick Sharga. Nationwide, completed foreclosures (REOs) took an average of 400 days from initial default notice to REO in the first quarter of this year. That’s up from 340 days a year ago and more than double the 151 days in 2007. At the current rate, it would take three to four years to move those loans through the foreclosure process. In some states, the picture is far worse.

In New York and New Jersey, it takes more than 900 days to get through the foreclosure process from start to finish, in Florida 619 days, and in California 330 days, according to RealtyTrac.

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Foreclosure Delays Plague Housing Recovery

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Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/42994346?__source=RSS*blog*&par=RSS