LPS Reports 28% Increase In Foreclosure Starts

Foreclosure starts jumped 28% in January compared with December, although starts were down 11.5% from the same month in 2011, according to data firm Lender Processing Services.

LPS also said foreclosure sales, which it defined as a bank repossession of a home from the borrower or in some cases the completion of a short sale, surged 29 percent in January from the previous month.

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$824 billion in real estate-related debt is seriously delinquent (90 or more days past due)

According to a quarterly report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.About $824 billion in real estate-related debt was seriously delinquent (90 or more days past due). While overall delinquency declined, about 2.2% of mortgage loans became delinquent in the last quarter of the year.

Foreclosures increased 9.5% over the quarter as 289,000 homes received foreclosure filings. However, the foreclosure rate is still 35.3% below the level recorded in the fourth quarter of 2010. Also, despite the rise in foreclosure filings, the rate of loans that became seriously delinquent declined, corresponding with a rising cure rate, which reached 27.2% at the end of last year. “Overall it appears that delinquency rates are stabilizing at levels that remain significantly higher than pre-crisis levels,” said Andrew Haughwout, VP and economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

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Bank of America Settles Allegations of Mortgage Fraud

Bank of America has agreed to pay $1 billion to settle allegations of underwriting and origination mortgage fraud, U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch said in a recent statement.

The $1B agreement follows an historic settlement between federal officials and the nation’s five largest mortgage servicers.

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Fed - foreclosure is not the best solution

More than four years into the housing crisis, and after millions of Americans have lost their homes, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is finally taking a stand. Bernanke sent a Federal Reserve paper to the leaders of the House of Representatives’ Committee on Financial Services arguing that relying heavily on foreclosures to deal with mortgage borrowers that can’t meet their obligations is “costly and inefficient” for the housing market because they can lead to deteriorating homes and weigh on the property values in the surrounding community.

Instead, the paper encourages lenders to “aggressively” pursue loan modifications and for servicers to be given more incentives to seek alternatives to foreclosure. Foreclosures “can result in ‘deadweight losses,’ or costs that do not benefit anyone, including the neglect and deterioration of properties that often sit vacant for months (or even years) and the associated negative effects on neighborhoods,” the paper said. “These deadweight losses compound the losses that households and creditors already bear and can result in further downward pressure on house prices.”

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RealtyTrac: 2012 - the year of the streamlined short sale

RealtyTrac is calling 2011 the year of foreclosure litigation, strategic default, failing foreclosure law firms and shadow inventory. It also was a year of infighting between regulators, underwater mortgages and the year when Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems faced suits over everything from its business model to its assignment procedures. Joel Cone, staff writer for RealtyTrac’s Foreclosure News Report, released a lengthy report on what this year brought for the mortgage, real estate and default servicing industries.

RealtyTrac data shows it took on average 336 days to complete a foreclosure on properties that made it through the process in the third quarter of 2011, that’s up 180% from the first quarter of 2007 when it took an average 120 days, Cone said.

So what’s Cone’s take on 2012? He believes short sales will play a huge role. “The dysfunctional and delayed foreclosure process may finally be leading lenders to usher in the much-anticipated ‘year of the streamlined short sale’ in 2012,” he wrote.

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Short Sale Increase in Southern California

Over the past year, short sales and foreclosures, key indicators of the health of the housing market, have dramatically increased in Southern California. Originally, foreclosures and short sales were occurring in the Inland Empire, Lancaster and northern Los Angeles County, but now they’re creeping south.

From Jan. 1 to Dec. 1, 2010, 59 short sales were recorded in Sherman Oaks. This year during the same period, 92 homes sold in short sales with another 36 pending sales and 22 actively listed, for a total of 150 properties, a 154% increase. Meanwhile, foreclosures sold during the same months last year totaled 48, compared to 51 foreclosure sales closed, four pending and another nine on the market, for a total of 64 homes, a 33% increase.

About a third of the short sales and the majority of foreclosures occurred in pricey neighborhoods north of Ventura Boulevard. Although home prices in the southern San Fernando Valley, including Sherman Oaks, slid down about 26% to 35% during the economic downturn, they were still less than the 40% to 60% price declines recorded in other locales.

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Foreclosures are increasing

Data firm RealtyTrac said Wednesday that the decline in foreclosure filings may have hit bottom and that foreclosure activity will likely grow. The shrinking for-sale inventory could also be due to homeowners waiting to list their homes during a 6-month leveling of list prices. The year-over-year median list price was up 1.6% in September at $190,000. Markets in Florida saw significant reductions in inventories as well as rising median list prices, suggesting a measure of stability.

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Foreclosures are increasing

Foreclosures are increasing dramatically and the overall housing market is showing clear signs of a significant slow down.

So much so that leading housing economists are expecting the next few months to be ‘grim’ for home sales. One thing is clear. Investors ARE buying. Specifically they are buying short sale and foreclosure homes priced less than $200,000 nation wide. Expect this trend to continue throughout the next 12-18 months.

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More homeowners choosing short sales over foreclosure

With the number of foreclosures on the market at record highs, many troubled homeowners are looking for other options to avoid the damage to their credit and to simply get out from underneath their home loan as soon as possible. They often have a better chance of qualifying for a new mortgage soon after completing a short sale than if they were to go through a foreclosure. Banks too sometimes prefer an owner to do a short sale because it saves them from the expensive cost of a foreclosure. As a result, there are more homeowners who are avoiding foreclosure by going through a short sale.

Last year, short sales accounted for about 10% of the number of homes on the market nationwide. That figure has increased by 2% and short sales now account for about 12% of the homes on the market. In some states – such as Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, California and Colorado - short sales have become still more prevalent. In California, for example, short sales accounted for about 25% of homes sold in the second quarter of 2011, a 7% increase year-over-year. Bank of America expects to complete at least 100,000 short sales this year, which is twice as many as it completed in 2009. A Well Fargo senior vice president claims that short sales have increased recently because there are not as many bank-owned homes on the market in some areas, leaving eager buyers to actively seek out short sales.

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Short Sales on the increase

According to RealtyTrac, short sales are increasing as a percentage of home sales in many states, helping some neighborhoods and homeowners avoid the more devastating impacts of foreclosures. The increases were sharper in some states, including California, Nevada, Michigan, Georgia and Colorado, the data show.

In California, they made up 25% of sales, vs. 18%. Bank of America, the largest home mortgage servicer, expects to complete more than 100,000 short sales this year — more than double what it did in 2009, the bank says. Wells Fargo Senior Vice President J.K. Huey says short sales have been “steady to slightly” up in recent months, partly because there are fewer bank-owned houses for sale in some markets, and that has forced buyers to pursue more short-sale properties.

In the second quarter, short-sale homes sold at a 21% discount to non-foreclosure homes, while bank-owned homes went at a 40% discount, RealtyTrac says. Short sales may also reduce losses for loan owners because they avoid full foreclosure costs.
Borrowers may qualify for new mortgages sooner after a short sale than after a foreclosure.

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