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"They’re probably going to default at a rate that makes subprime look like a walk in the park," warned Rick Sharga , senior vice president for RealtyTrac, a foreclosure research firm in Irvine, Calif.
Mortgage application volume fell for the fourth consecutive week, fueled by a drop off in demand for refinancing, according to the MBA.
If the pending buyers did not lock rates, they are about to come to the closing table and find out that they cannot qualify any more with the more than one percent increase in rates (from ~4.75% to ~5.75%) over the last week.
But overly onerous payments are only part of the problem. For 15.4 million “underwater” borrowers — those who owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth — a lack of home equity puts them at risk of default
Through 2012, the CRL expects foreclosures to rise to at least 9 million, costing 92 million families $1.9 trillion in lost home value.
But falling prices also make it more difficult for homeowners who get into financial trouble to refinance or sell their homes, and for others to take advantage of lower interest rates.
Foreclosure filings soared in Miami-Dade by 111 percent between March and April, according to RealtyTrac, a private foreclosure tracking firm. Broward foreclosures surged 124 percent between March and April.
The U.S. is “at the edge of a major liquidation” in the stock of unsold properties, which may help to stabilize prices, Greenspan said.
A total of 342,038 properties received a default or auction notice or were seized last month, RealtyTrac Inc. of Irvine, California, said today in a statement.
The median price fell 14 percent to $169,000, the National Association of Realtors said today. Prices dropped in 134 of 152 metropolitan areas, with the deepest declines in Cape Coral-Ft. Myers, Florida, and the San Francisco and San Jose areas.
Options for overhauling Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-run mortgage-finance companies, may eventually include liquidating their assets...
The worse news is: They see home price declines of 7-12% nationally for 2009. But but but but I thought home prices had stopped going down?
This chart is probably the most astounding. We have taken virtually every measure possible to prop up the crony banking model and thrown trillions at the housing problem. Yet foreclosures are still at record highs nationwide.
The Senate today approved a housing bill aimed at addressing the country's growing foreclosure problem, including revamping a troubled government foreclosure prevention program.
Dreaming of a tropical paradise to call your own? Several Australian islands off the Great Barrier Reef are on sale, and thanks to the global recession, they're cheaper than they used to be.
“Just like homeowners in smaller homes, these homeowners anticipated being able to refinance mortgages to continue making payments and at a future date sell for a gain and put it toward their next home.
Real-estate Web site Zillow.com said that overall, the number of borrowers who are underwater climbed to 26.9 million at the end of the first quarter from 16.3 million at the end of the fourth quarter.
“The operating environment for housing remained very difficult during the first quarter of 2009. The housing market continues to face rising unemployment, tight mortgage availability, increased foreclosure activity and declining home prices...
The FHA is almost certainly going to need a taxpayer bailout in the months ahead. The only debate is how much it will cost. By law FHA must carry a 2% reserve (or a 50 to 1 leverage rate), and it is now 3% and falling.
We know that those homeowners that do not have mortgages — i.e., 100% equity — cannot default. So if we want to understand the potential further mischief real estate land can cause, it is the mortgaged properties we should be watching.
Higher end properties are going to have to drop their prices significantly to adjust to this market. That will tend to put downward pressure on all prices. High speculator participation and a cooling economy are also risk factors for the market.
Victorville- The housing collapse is taking a literal form for one bankrupt housing development. Four model homes and 12 nearly finished spec homes at Bear Valley Road and Highway 395 are being demolished.
Phoenix home prices fell 35% from February 2008 to February 2009, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index. That’s the largest decline of any of the 20 largest cities in the US. Phoenix home prices are down 51% from their peak.
