Everybody knows a recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose your job. Apparently more of us are coming closer to depression than we would like to believe.

The data you are about to read is from the June 2008 edition of Collections & CREDIT RISK magazine. This particular magazine touts itself as the consumer & commercial credit authority. I’ve been a subscriber for several years and agree with their self assessment.

Some of the people and sources quoted in the article, Late with Their Mortgage Payments, Consumers Lose Faith in the Economy, have been quoted before so you might recognize their names.

RealtyTrac CEO James J. Saccacio is one of the people offering an opinion. On the topic of federal, state and local governments and community groups offering a helping hand to consumers he, in part, says, “stopgap measures could be simply deferring another flood of foreclosures which would mean extending the length of time required for the market to recover.”

My question would be does it really make a difference if these entities attempt to help. By their own admission (in this article) the industry says loan workouts are far and few between. If the industry says it isn’t willing to work with the borrowers, what difference, in actuality, does it make if stopgap measures are utilized to halt the flood of foreclosures?

Another quoted source is TransUnion. I would think they know a thing or two about delinquencies and can paint a picture of the nation as a whole, at least credit wise. They say the mortgage borrower delinquency rate – people 60 or more days late with their mortgage payment - is expected to rise throughout 2008 to 4.0% up from 2.9%.

If their quoted figures of 15 million adults getting calls from collectors is true, I would believe this information has relevance. After all, 1.1% is a staggering rise in a short of period of time.

Experian Consumer Direct did a survey and found “the number of severely delinquent mortgage accounts grew 15% between February 2007 and February 2008.” They did not define severely but I have to believe it is people who are a minimum of 90 days late and are about to receive a Notice of Defualt.

Maybe the most telling remark made in this article is by Theodore Iacobuzio, managing director and practice leader for TowerGroup. He said, “No one doubts the seriousness of the current credit crisis, but it’s noteworthy that the largest financial institutions are more likely than others to characterize its impact as severe or worse.”

Compare that quoted remark with what we’ve been hearing from some of TV’s talking heads and the White House. Maybe, just maybe, the most relevant information sits with those inside the industry who have the capacity to look at the macro credit picture.

Maybe, just maybe, we should be hearing more from them and less from the bleached blond bauble heads masquerading as “news” reporters. Then, maybe not…

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Tags: consumers, Credit, default, Economy, Foreclosures, housing, inflation, loans, realtytrac

Foreclosures are up 79 percent!

Now that’s something. And that is exactly how much the foreclosure rate in this country increased by in 2007 from the year before.

The latest figures from RealtyTrac paint an even darker picture for the near future: apparently lots of folks just began falling behind on mortgage payments since November, meaning many many more foreclosures ahead barring some economic miracle.

Not likely that President Bush’s notion of giving tax rebates to most Americans will do much good when it comes to the mortage/housing crisis. For $600 you can just about buy new bathroom fixtures nowadays…maybe?

Four states really stood out in terms of the number of foreclosures–Nevada, Florida, Michigan and California top the list, but take no comfort if you happen to live in Colorado, Ohio, Georgia, Arizona, Illinois or Indiana.

Over the next couple of years, nearly 2 million subprime mortgages will bump up to higher interest rates which will no doubt translate into yet more foreclosures.

If you happen to be one of the lucky few with golden credit and an eye toward buying a chunk of real estate, there will probably be bargains to be had. But, when there is so much pressure, as there is, to unload all those vacant houses, there is also a greater chance of getting caught up in a host of fraudulent practices.

Remember, chaos is the best friend of hucksters.

While there are many advocates of going it alone when buying a house or other piece of real estate to save all sorts of broker fees, it would seem as if this might not be the best of times to do that. This is when a buyer–or a seller for that matter–really needs the advice and wisdom of professionals who have “been there, done that.”

However, this does not mean that you shouldn’t be very careful about the people you may end up doing business with. Just because someone is all warm and fuzzy and greats you with a great big smile and hardy handshake, it doesn’t mean that person is your friend or that he or she is looking out for your own best interests.

If you don’t believe that, just talk to some of the people soon to be homeless.

Foreclosures, mortgage, subprime

Tags: Foreclosures, real estate, realtytrac, subprime mortgage

Mistakes happen. I wanted to share a quick story with everyone that at least makes me feel like we’re doing some good work here at BiggerPockets. On Wednesday one of our users wrote a post on our forums letting us know that RealtyTrac.com (aff.) and Foreclosure.com (aff.) had supposedly been incorrectly listing their property as in foreclosure for the past 2 months. She tried to contact the companies several times by phone, but they apparently did not remove the listing.

What had apparently occurred was that her home was improperly listed by the county clerk / recorder as in foreclosure. That day, the foreclosure database websites grabbed the information, and the county corrected the error soon after. It seems that these corrections do not reach the databases.

Thanks to the conversation about her situation on our forums, a representative of RealtyTrac, Daren Blomquist, posted that he would be happy to help out and remove the listing from their site. I only hope that the folks at Foreclosure.com and any other foreclosure listing site will do the same.

In addition, I think it would be helpful if these companies would also check for any corrections at the county clerk / recorder’s offices when they are pulling the Notice Of Default (NOD) and Lis Pendens records. If they presently do that and this is just an anomaly, then I’m just happy everything has worked out.

Tags: biggerpockets, default, foreclosure, foreclosure.com, forums, lis, notice, of, pendens, realtytrac

RealtyTrac (aff.)today announced in their monthly foreclosure report that 112,210 properties were entering some stage of foreclosure in September. According to the ForeclosurePulse Blog, that number represents “a decrease of less than 1 percent from August but an increase of more than 63 percent from September 2005.

September’s foreclosure rate of one new foreclosure filing for every 1,030 households was the third highest monthly foreclosure rate year to date, behind only the foreclosure rates reported in August and February.”

According to James J. Saccacio, CEO of RealtyTrac. “Foreclosure filings are up 39 percent year to date and have already have surpassed the total number reported in all of 2005. If they continue at the current pace, foreclosures will exceed the 1.2 million mark by the end of the year.”

Thanks to Octavio at RealtyTrac for letting us know about the new report!

Tags: foreclosure, Foreclosures, James, realtytrac, report, Saccacio

CNN is reporting that foreclosures spiked in the month of August. ” In August, 115,292 properties entered into foreclosure, according to RealtyTrac, an online marketplace for foreclosure sales. That was 24 percent above the level in July and 53 percent higher than a year earlier.”

Florida led all states with 16,533 properties in some stage of foreclosure, 50% higher then July’s number. In California, that number reached 12,506, a 160% increase over last year.

According to the Nashville Business Journal , Tennessee had 2,377 foreclosures in August, a 60% increase from last year (1 in 1,032 homes).

The Cincinnati Business Courier listed Ohio with 7,468 properties (1 in 640 households), a 36.1% increase from July.

For the fifth straight month, Colorado led all states with 1 foreclosure for every 301 homes.

Nationally, August saw a 24% increase in foreclosures from July and a 53% increase from last year. The list named Greely, Colorado; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Miami and Denver as the top five metro areas in terms of foreclosures.

Amazingly, Vermont with only 2 foreclosures in the entire state, leads the country with the least number of foreclosures.

Tags: batonrouge, colorado, default, foreclosure, Foreclosures, greeley, housing, James, properties, realtytrac, Saccacio, vermont

Lets take a look at some really scary numbers:

Indianapolis (1-to-101)
Atlanta (1-to-111)
Dallas (1-to-112)
Denver (1-to-128)
Austin (1-to-142)

These are not crime stats, but instead these are foreclosure rates from April 1 to June 30. These cities lead the country in foreclosures, according to RealtyTrac.com
Source: New Orleans City Business

Tags: foreclosure, foreclosure-rate, Foreclosures, realestate, realtytrac