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Foreclosures Matter! How Foreclosures have affected homeowners, investors and the economy

Joshua Dorkin
2 min read

I was reading a post by one of my favorite real estate bloggers, Pat Kitano, about how bloggers seem to be ignoring the foreclosure business, and I was a bit surprised. It seems that many of the other blogs out there have decided to play down the problem or feel that there isn’t a problem at all.

As a site that is foremost focused on investors, we see this from both sides. While it is very unfortunate that people are losing their homes in record numbers, the investment community is chomping at the bit, waiting for the record number of foreclosures to continue. This reality, where people can’t keep up with rising payments is taking a bite out of not only the US Economy, but also the global economy as well. As Russ Amy put it, we all need to “write about it” (the problem), because it isn’t going to just go away!

Homeowners & Investors
– Want to find out how foreclosures work? Read about The Foreclosure Process

Homeowners
– We set up a Foreclosure Help Forum for people to get advice when they find themselves behind payments or in other mortgage trouble. Some of the tips given to the folks who have already begun to participate on this forum have been fantastic and quite helpful!

Investors
– Here are some advantages of buying bank owned properties aka. REOs
– Looking for pre-foreclosures? Here’s a great article detailing your 3 shots at getting them, and here’s another that talks about where to find foreclosures.

Think Foreclosures aren’t a Major Problem?

Lets look at some recent news to see if you’re right . . .

– According to Marketwatch, “Home prices are falling everywhere.”
For the national Case-Shiller home price index, prices fell 1.7% in the third quarter compared with the second quarter, and were down a record 4.5% in the past year. It was the largest quarter-to-quarter price decline in the 20 years covered by the index.
This can directly be attributed to the sub-prime blowout and resulting foreclosure massacre that has been taking place around the country. While real estate is a local issue, primarily, this and other signs prove that we are facing a national real estate situation here as well.

– Yahoo Finance has a piece that details how “Even average homeowners feel rising mortgage floodwaters”:
With property values dropping in many areas of the country, a growing number of homeowners — particularly those who bought their house in the last five years — are looking at the prospect of being “underwater” on the mortgage. That’s when the value of the home is less than the amount remaining on the loan used to buy it. So while the nation has been focused on a record-high rate of foreclosures, the tide has been rising on a lot of people who simply had bad timing.
Clearly, not just those who are being foreclosed on are feeling the heat. With lenders practically giving away loans to anyone with or without the ability to pay them off each month, we’ve slowly built our own grave. The government watched as this happened and encouraged it so the White House could tout a strong and growing economy – not so strong now, eh?

– Even the always positive National Association of Realtors (NAR) seems to finally be facing reality after releasing a new report that details how home sales declined in 46 states in the 3rd quarter.

Is there any good news in the Housing Market?

It looks like Mortgage rates have dropped to a 6 month low, and whispers of another drop in interest rates have boosted the stock market over 300 points today (pre-close).

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.