I am constantly amazed by the ignorance of the mainstream media when it comes to housing issues. They consistently cheer-lead, take the NAr’s statements at face value, and fail to question their rosy assumptions. This behavior provides people bad information and may cause someone to buy who might otherwise chose to rent if they knew the truth. There are many good reasons to buy today as values are well below historic norms, but people should be given accurate information in order to make an informed decision. That’s not what people get from the mainstream media these days.
Today’s featured article was particularly galling. Not just was it full of shoddy analysis and poor reasoning, it gloated about the correctness of its erroneous contentions. It’s the height of hubris in financial reporting.
Foreclosure Wave Averted as Doomsayers Defied: Mortgages
By John Gittelsohn & Prashant Gopal – Nov 29, 2012 7:50 AM PT
Stockton, California, has the highest U.S. foreclosure rate. It also has a housing shortage.
The number of homes for sale in the city fell 42 percent in October from a year earlier. Listings routinely attract multiple offers. Prices are on the rise.
When banks pulled back on foreclosures two years ago following a government investigation into allegations of faulty practices, market researchers, academics and Wall Street analysts said that a surge of delinquent homes would deluge the U.S. market once lenders resolved the claims and worked through backlog, driving down prices for years to come. RealtyTrac Inc., a seller of property data, warned a year ago of a “new set of incoming foreclosure waves.” Susan Wachter, professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, said in February that a logjam may be “unleashed” and destabilize the market.
In fact, the flood failed to materialize, even after the five biggest U.S. mortgage servicers reached a $25 billion settlement with federal and state regulators in February. Instead, the number of properties for sale shrank to the fewest in a decade, prices appreciated at the fastest pace since 2005, and the gradual healing of the housing market helped boost consumer confidence and the economy.
Here is where a little thoughtful analysis is in order. Why did this occur?
First, banks are in no hurry to process their foreclosures as it requires them to recognize huge losses. It’s far more preferable to them to continue to play the amend-extend-pretend game and try to squeeze a few more pennies out of the living dead. Since the bank’s cost of capital is near zero (have you checked out CD rates lately?), banks can hold these non-performing or poorly-performing notes on their books indefinitely. Also, with the relaxation of mark-to-market accounting, there is no regulatory pressure to liquidate. For these reasons, the banks just don’t foreclose.
Second If a wave of foreclosures were to occur, it doesn’t necessarily mean a wave of MLS for-sale inventory will suddenly appear. These foreclosures can be held by the banks or sold to REO-to-rental hedge funds who keep them as rentals. The banks can meter these properties on to the MLS at the rate the market can absorb them. In fact, that is what they are doing now.
“We don’t have enough homes now to meet the needs of the market,” Paul Jacobson, a Stockton native and real estate broker for 22 years, said as he cruised the city’s northern fringe, where suburbia meets farmland. “People see a foreclosed home for sale in this area and they’re going to jump on it.”
Better hurry up and buy now, right?
‘Wrong’“Many of us, myself included, feared a wave of foreclosures when the settlement came,” Wachter, professor of real estate and finance at Wharton in Philadelphia, said in a telephone interview. “I was wrong.”
Slowing the foreclosure process has allowed banks to avoid booking losses on non-performing loans, said Joshua Rosner, an analyst with Graham Fisher & Co. in New York. …
“The goal all along — from the banks, the servicers and the government — was sort of to slow walk the whole thing, bleed it through over time,” Rosner said in a telephone interview.
Someone recognizes what’s really going on. Liquidating shadow inventory requires managing absorption rates.
The strategy may be paying off. Home prices in 20 U.S. cities rose 3 percent in September from a year earlier, the most since 2010, the S&P/Case-Shiller index showed this week.
There is no arguing that the bank’s policies of inflating home prices to harm future buyers for their own benefit is working — for now.
The so-called shadow inventory of pending foreclosures, which may be larger than the visible supply of previously owned homes for sale, is shrinking as new defaults decline and banks work through their backlog of bad loans. Home loans that were more than 90 days late or in the foreclosure process, a proxy for the shadow inventory, fell to 7.03 percent of properties with a mortgage in the third quarter, the lowest share since 2008, the Mortgage Bankers Association said two weeks ago.
If you were a financial reporter, and you were going to make a reassuring statement about banks working through their backlog of bad loans, wouldn’t you do a little research to see if it were really true?
Managed Process
While lenders may bring more distressed properties to market over the next year, it won’t be enough to depress values, said Vishwanath Tirupattur, housing strategist at Morgan Stanley in New York.
“I don’t anticipate a flood that will take the market down with it,” he said in a telephone interview. “It will be a much more managed process.”
I agree with him. The banks will manage this process, but how long will it go on? Will they be able to process all their foreclosures and still manage to allow prices to rise?
The shadow inventory — which also includes properties owned by banks but not for sale — fell from an estimated 8.8 million homes in 2010 to 5.36 million as of this month, a faster decline than expected as fewer loan modifications re-defaulted, according to Tirupattur.
“The loan modifications were successful in this new wave,” she said. “Transformative steps were being put into place in the loan modification process. I underestimated how transformative those reforms would be.”
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
I don’t know what data these people are looking at, but it clearly isn’t the rate of redefault. I reported last week that Loan modification defaults soar 24%, can-kicking fails.
If the reporters had bothered with some simple fact checking, they would have realized that loan modifications, the savior of the housing markets, have been and will continue to be abject failures. The majority of the decline in shadow inventory and the delinquency rate in 2012 is due to expanded can-kicking through loan modifications. The redefault rate on these is very high — nearly 50% fail each year — and these will ultimately end up as foreclosures.
Potential Foreclosures
The inventory of potential foreclosures remains a threat across the U.S. and could result in a new wave of defaults and depress home values, especially if the economy slows, said Robert Shiller, an economics professor at Yale University. Homeowners who owe more than their properties are worth are more likely to default if they lose a job, need to move for employment, or simply decide to walk away, he said.
“I’m still worried about home-price declines,” Shiller, and co-creator of the S&P/Case-Shiller home-price indexes, said in a telephone interview. “It’s funny how people have so much confidence in the recovery. History shows that these markets are hard to predict.”
The reason for confidence is largely due to the chorus of bottom-callers in the mainstream media pounding away in article after article about the housing bottom. Let’s be realistic, the only way this current “recovery” is sustained is based on the managed, slow rate of processing of foreclosures by lenders. Demand hasn’t picked up significantly, particularly among first-time owner occupants, so the chance of a self-fueling rally with escape velocity is near zero.
Delaying the process may also be hindering a faster recovery, said Anthony B. Sanders, an economics professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.
“The best cure for any market meltdown is to let prices fall to whatever level is needed to clear it,” he said. “Instead, we’re sitting here in 2012 and we’re still not out of the woods yet. The wisdom of delaying foreclosures etc. was more of a political act than an economic act.”
Amen. Foreclosures are essential to the economic recovery.
What will lenders do when loan modifications fail?
The can-kicking loan modification programs will fail. Only a very small percentage of loan owners will continue to pay on these until their homes have equity in them again. Most will redefault and many will short sale long before values rise enough to provide any equity. The redefaults are of particular interest because it’s unclear how banks will deal with them going forward.
For the last four years, when people defaulted, they played the squatter’s lottery. Some were randomly foreclosed, a terrorist tactic meant to spook the herd and forestall a wave of strategic default, but most who defaulted were simply allowed to squat. Desperate to squeeze some cash out of the legions of squatters and to avoid political backlash for their foreclosures, banks and politicians hatched loan modification programs to kick the can until a future date when the bank could afford the foreclosure. This policy has been in place nearly four years now, and it shows no sign of changing.
Is this how the housing bust will play out? Will lenders continue the charade of loan modifications, sometimes modifying the same loan multiple times before they finally get around to foreclosing? The squatters are game to play along. Why not? They get periods of cheap housing punctuated by periods of free housing, and they still hold out hope for a massive bailout program that will reward them further for their efforts.
If amend-extend-pretend until foreclosure remains official bank policy, then the housing markets will be burdened with measured liquidations for many years to come. It’s difficult to measure exactly because the numbers of shadow inventory are manipulated by loan modifications. We now have a shadow shadow inventory of doomed loan modifications. I expect to see the delinquency rate remain stubbornly high during 2013 and shadow inventory numbers to flatline as redefaults on loan modifications force the banks to ramp up their foreclosure machinery again. That doesn’t mean any flood of REOs on the MLS, but it does mean the overhang of inventory will persist for much longer than most realize. We may be on the road to recovery, but it will take much longer and be much bumpier than financial reporters lead you to believe.
Another casualty of the Option ARM
The Option ARM was the most toxic loan program ever devised. Once unleashed on the general public in large numbers in 2003, it provided the air which inflated the housing bubble. The collapse of these loan programs took much of the air out of the bubble in 2008 when loan balances plummeted.
The former owners of today’s featured REO was reasonably responsible with their mortgage until they took out an Option ARM in 2004. They ended up getting their outstanding mortgage debt up to $459,000 assuming they maxed out their final HELOC. Like most of the others with this loan, they succumb to the higher payments and ultimately lost their home.
Wouldn't you be embarrassed to overpay by $100,000? Only fools buy houses without knowing neighborhood values. Don't be a fool. Don't suffer the pain of an underwater mortgage. The surest way to lose your house is to overpay for it. Our reports identify overvalued and undervalued neighborhoods. Use it to broaden or narrow your search area. Savvy buyers work with us to find bargains. We've saved thousands from financial ruin. Let us save you too. If you want peace of mind while shopping for your next home, sign up for our monthly market newsletter.
We're sorry, but we couldn't find MLS # S719076 in our database. This property may be a new listing or possibly taken off the market. Please check back again.
Proprietary OC Housing News home purchase analysis
5 IRONWOOD Cir #21 Coto de Caza, CA 92679
$345,000 …….. Asking Price
$227,500 ………. Purchase Price
10/27/1989 ………. Purchase Date
$117,500 ………. Gross Gain (Loss)
($18,200) ………… Commissions and Costs at 8%
============================================
$99,300 ………. Net Gain (Loss)
============================================
51.6% ………. Gross Percent Change
43.6% ………. Net Percent Change
1.8% ………… Annual Appreciation
Cost of Home Ownership
——————————————————————————
$345,000 …….. Asking Price
$12,075 ………… 3.5% Down FHA Financing
3.40% …………. Mortgage Interest Rate
30 ……………… Number of Years
$332,925 …….. Mortgage
$105,078 ………. Income Requirement
$1,476 ………… Monthly Mortgage Payment
$299 ………… Property Tax at 1.04%
$0 ………… Mello Roos & Special Taxes
$86 ………… Homeowners Insurance at 0.3%
$347 ………… Private Mortgage Insurance
$506 ………… Homeowners Association Fees
============================================
$2,715 ………. Monthly Cash Outlays
($217) ………. Tax Savings
($533) ………. Equity Hidden in Payment
$13 ………….. Lost Income to Down Payment
$63 ………….. Maintenance and Replacement Reserves
============================================
$2,040 ………. Monthly Cost of Ownership
Cash Acquisition Demands
——————————————————————————
$4,950 ………… Furnishing and Move In at 1% + $1,500
$4,950 ………… Closing Costs at 1% + $1,500
$3,329 ………… Interest Points
$12,075 ………… Down Payment
============================================
$25,304 ………. Total Cash Costs
$31,200 ………. Emergency Cash Reserves
============================================
$56,504 ………. Total Savings Needed
The property above is available for sale on the MLS.
Contact us for a comparative market analysis, a cost of ownership analysis, or information on how you can make an offer today!
OC Housing News FREE Guides!
Click on the book cover for more information.
Nearby Foreclosures
Gain a competitive advantage over other buyers. By locating distressed properties -- before they hit the MLS -- you can discover where tomorrow's REOs and short sales will appear. Most of these properties are not listed on the MLS, but they will be soon. Research properties in advance and get a jump on your competition. Don't miss out on another deal because you couldn't act quickly. Use this tool to your advantage! The red properties are already bank owned. As soon as REO asset managers prepare them for sale, they will be on the MLS. Get ready! The green and blue properties have owners who are not paying their mortgages. They may be offered as short sales, or they may go through foreclosure and become REO. Either way, they will also likely be available on the MLS soon. Find your next home! Be prepared to offer on these properties by researching them in advance or risk losing out to buyers who are have done their homework. Start your research today! To find distressed properties, enter your desired location and press search. Scroll through list by pressing "next."
22 Responses to “The failure of loan mods will cause a new wave of foreclosures”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
[...] WSJ Sellers in Toronto, Vancouver just say no as housing markets sink – Globe & Mail The failure of loan mods will cause a new wave of foreclosures – OC Housing News Corelogic: Home prices rise 6.3 percent nationally – Housing Wire Fed [...]
Guaranteed to fail
Loan mods are nothing more than ‘extend and pretend’ window dressing simply because they don’t make borrowers solvent.
They are intended to make borrowers solvent by reducing their payments to affordable levels. The fact that they fail demonstrates that it’s impossible to make a Ponzi solvent because they require increased borrowing to pay their bills.
Uh ….. repricing does not equate to solvency. just say’n
Since many of the new mortgages are owned by the Federal Reserve via the multiple QE process I’m surprised there hasn’t been a Federal Reserve loan forgiveness or modification process.
That really would be the mortgage lottery. If your loan is purchased by the federal reserve you get a break, but if anyone else buys it, you’re out of luck.
These guys have an excellent grasp of the real situation with housing.
Radar Logic Questions Recovery’s Sustainability
Despite reports of improvements in home prices and sales, Radar Logic argued that upon closer examination, the housing market is not doing as well as assumed.
As of September 25, 2012, Radar Logic’s RPX composite price increased 5.2 percent year-over-year across 25 metro areas, according to the company’s monthly housing report. In addition, sales activity has gone up by 12.3 percent over a one-year period.
However, the increase in prices tracked by Radar Logic is not a result of “significant appreciation in household-owned homes,” the report stated.
Instead, it is due to a decline in “motivated sales,” or sales of foreclosed homes and REOs, which are sold at significant discounts compared to non-foreclosures.
Radar Logic’s composite shows homes sold through motivated sales were 34 percent lower than the composite price for all sales in September.
Overall, motivated sales have fallen yearly by 39.2 and monthly by 9.4 percent since September 25. As a share of total sales, motivated sales have shrunk to 13 percent, the smallest share since January 2008, according to the report.
On the other hand, the share of “other sales” have gone up by 27.9 percent year-over-year during the same time period.
The report further stated “a significant and increasing share of demand in the last year has come from institutional investors rather than households.”
Among the 25 metro areas tracked, the share of purchases from institutional investors has increased to 9 percent from 7 percent a year ago. Monthly investor purchases also jumped 42 percent over a one-year period.
While investors are helping to push prices up, Radar Logic says the growth is not likely to last as prices for REOs see an increase.
“If prices rise to a point where investors’ expectations of future home price appreciation do not support their desired returns, then demand for REO will decline and prices could fall again,” the report stated.
The report also pointed to data from LPS, which shows 1.8 million properties are in pre-sale foreclosure inventory and another 3.5 million properties are more than 30 days or more past due but not in foreclosure, leading to a total of 5.3 million properties in distress.
Radar Logic believes that at some point, “these distressed properties will make their way onto the market, and as they do they will weigh on home price metrics.”
In addition to the supply of inventory that may potentially flood the market, the more than 10 million estimated underwater borrowers also gave Radar Logic a reason question the authenticity of the recovery.
If prices rise high enough, the analytics company expects to see a supply of homes unleashed from homeowners who were once prevented from listing their properties due to negative equity.
Thus, not only is demand expected to dry up from investors, but supply is expected to increase.
So, instead of a steady rise towards a recovery, Radar Logic expects a different pattern to play out.
“We believe that an alternative scenario is equally likely, one in which housing price metrics rise and fall in a saw-tooth pattern until the shadow supply has been substantially absorbed,” the analytics firm stated.
Proof that the market is overheating due to a lack of inventory.
Increase in Asking Prices Exceeds Rent in Certain Markets
National gains for rentals still grew faster than asking prices for homes in November, but in certain metros, the trend was reversed, Trulia reported Tuesday.
According to data from Trulia, rent prices in November increased by 5.6 percent year-over-year, while asking prices for homes were up 3.8 percent, representing the biggest increase so far this year.
Even though rents stayed ahead with bigger improvements, asking prices in 14 of the 25 largest rental markets managed to post greater increases compared to rents, the data provider revealed.
Denver, for example, experienced a 9 percent yearly increase for rent prices, the fourth highest out of other large metros. However, asking prices for homes in Denver rose even higher at 12.4 percent. San Francisco also posted a significant gain in rents at 5.8 percent, but asking prices rose by 9.5 percent year-over-year.
In Seattle, asking prices were slightly ahead at 8.8 percent compared to 8.3 percent for rent prices.
Rents in Houston rose the fastest year-over-year in November, posting a 16.8 percent increase. Other metros that led with significant yearly gains in rent included Oakland (11.6 percent), Miami (10.8 percent), and Philadelphia (8.9 percent).
Although recent reports have revealed typical seasonal monthly declines month-over-month for home prices, Trulia found asking prices rose monthly by 0.8 percent. According to Trulia, asking prices on for-sale homes lead sales prices by several months.
On a quarterly basis, asking prices were up 2.2 percent, with three metros posting significant quarterly gains in asking prices for the first time since the start of the housing crises, Trulia reported. The three metros were Atlanta (+6.2 percent), Riverside-San Bernardino (5.5 percent), and Sacramento (5.3 percent).
According to Trulia chief economist Jed Kolko, “price recovery is strongest in the largest metros,” while “price gains are starting to waver in smaller markets.”
Out of the 100 largest metros, 70 saw quarterly gains for asking prices, and 76 experienced yearly growth.
“The key factors behind today’s price gains are job growth, falling vacancies, and–above all–rebounding from the huge price declines of the housing bust,” Kolko explained.
Data for asking home prices and rents is based on listings found on Trulia.com.
Prices fall in October signaling end of 2012 price rally
Compared to 2011, home prices continued to show strong gains in October and posted their biggest yearly increase since June 2006, according to data from CoreLogic.
Home prices—including distressed sale—climbed 6.3 percent higher year-over-year in October, marking the eighth consecutive month of yearly gains. Distressed sales include transactions for REOs and short sales.
With the conclusion of the home-buying season, home prices dropped by 0.2 percent from September to October.
According to the data provider’s pending home price index, prices should further increase yearly by 7.1 percent in November when including distressed sales.
As expected during the winter season, prices should fall monthly and are projected to decrease by 0.3 percent from October to November. CoreLogic’s pending index is based on Multiple Listing Service data.
“The housing recovery that started earlier in 2012 continues to gain momentum,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic, in a release. “The recovery is geographically broad-based with almost all markets experiencing some appreciation.”
CoreLogic found only five states experienced yearly price decreases.
“Sand and energy states continue to experience the most robust appreciation and some judicial foreclosure states are even recording increasing prices,” Fleming added.
The states with the biggest year-over-year price gains when including distressed sales were Arizona (+21.3 percent), Hawaii (+13.2 percent), Idaho (+12.4 percent), Nevada (+12.4 percent) and North Dakota (+10.4 percent).
Among the five states where prices depreciated year-over-year, Illinois and Delaware tied with the biggest losses, each seeing price declines of 2.7 percent. Rhode Island and New Jersey also tied with 0.6 percent decreases. Alabama ranked fifth and posted a 0.3 percent decline.
Out of the largest metros, Phoenix held a significant lead with a 24.5 percent yearly gain. Riverside ranked second for its 7.3 percent increase and was followed by Houston (+6.6 percent), Los Angeles (+6.4 percent), and Dallas (+4.5 percent).
11 Death Spiral States
Eleven states made Forbes’ list of danger spots for investors including California, New York, Illinois, and Ohio. They warned (and with the cliff it is even more critical), if you have muni bonds in these states – clean up your portfolio; if your career takes you there – rent, don’t buy!
#3: California
As Forbes advises: To lend money to California, Illinois or the other nine states perched on the precipice requires a leap of faith. So does buying a house in those locales. Don’t count on a property tax limit to protect your home’s value. If other taxes are high enough, there won’t be any buyers.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-12-04/11-death-spiral-states
CA, NY, and IL. Doesn’t it means 1/3 of the US population lives in a death spiral state?
That story is a bit misleading. You can’t simply define government workers as “takers.” The money they earn also generates tax revenues, so they take from themselves as well.
IR:”you can’t simply define government workers as takers”…. ”they take from themselves as well”
———————————————————————————
Exactly. So you see, you can simply define them as ”takers”
More anecdotal evidence of a “housing recovery” – Not only are single family detached homes selling for their 2007-2009 prices right now in my neighborhood, but even the townhomes are now recovering quickly.
e.g. ~1,600 sq ft townhome distressed sales that were fetching very low $300s a couple years ago, are now selling in the low-to-mid $400s. They sold new in 2006-2008 in the low $500s. There’s so little inventory that homes are listing at eye-catching high prices, yet selling within a couple weeks. Low rates are powerful…
I rushed to get an appraisal in the summer, because I had to have 50% equity to get the best rates. However, it seems like I didn’t need to rush, values are now actually increasing.
Scarce inventory and low prices are certainly contributing to the price rebound. The only thing holding back even larger price increases in some of the most undervalued areas is the appraisal. Many of these deals fall out because the appraisal comes in at recent comps, and the borrower doesn’t have the additional 10% to kick in to close the deal.
The drop in delinquencies was only due to a rule change. And short sellers are worried about the Debt forgiveness Act of 2007. Finally, principal reductions in the loan modifications greatly increased.
New Foreclosures Plummet, but Fall Is Temporary
Published: Wednesday, 5 Dec 2012 | 12:21 PM ET By: Diana Olick CNBC Real Estate Reporter
The housing market is improving, no question. Home prices are rising, albeit in fits and starts. Fewer borrowers are falling behind on their mortgage payments. All of this is true, but in no way accounts for a nearly 22 percent drop in the number of new foreclosure proceedings by banks in October.
Lender Processing Services, which reported that number Wednesday is quick to caution that the one month drop, after a spike in September, is likely due to changes in mortgage servicing that went into effect in September under the $25 billion mortgage settlement. Servicers are now required to give borrowers a 14-day notice in writing before referring a loan for foreclosures. Those letters began going out in September.
As such, the impact on foreclosure starts, while significant now, is likely to be temporary as the industry adapts to the new requirements, according to LPS’s Herb Blecher. In other words, the settlement designed to protect borrowers from faulty foreclosure proceedings, is doing so but slowing the process of clearing distress yet again. This is not to be taken lightly, because until the distress is gone, the housing market will not recover at the pace we might like.
Nearly one third (1.3 million) of sales in the past twelve months have been distressed, either REO (bank-owned homes) or short sales, according to LPS. That compares to just 226,000 in 2005 when overall home sales were twice the pace they are today.
It doesn’t stop there. The California Homeowners Bill of Rights goes into effect January 1, 2013. Similar legislation in Nevada doubled the foreclosure pipeline over the past year.
Another reason for the drop in new foreclosures may be a surge in loan modifications involving principal reduction. These are also mandated by the mortgage servicing settlement. Principal reduction modifications jumped 62 percent from October to November, according to Amherst Securities’ Laurie Goodman.
That may in fact be due to fears of the “Fiscal Cliff” and the expiration at the end of this year of key tax relief for debt forgiveness.
If the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007 is not extended and gets mired in fiscal cliff negotiations, borrowers will have to pay taxes come January 1 on principal reduction loan modifications as well as short sales (when a bank allows a home to be sold for less than the value of the mortgage).
There are still 5.3 million loans either delinquent or in the foreclosure process, according to LPS. While increasing optimism in today’s housing market is not unfounded, one cannot discount the lingering distress and potential shadow inventory of bank-owned homes that will continue to haunt housing for the next several years.
If the mortgage forgiveness tax relief is not extended, the number of approved short sales is going to plummet. Inventory will dry up even further.
One way to raise prices is to lower the value of fiat money. Shouldn’t this article be titled “Why a wave will NOT be forthcoming”? On the other hand, prices are going to go up, even if values stay relative. Therefore paying off your house is one way to foil the banksters, so I’d vote for not going ponzi. And buying another house or apartment complex amounts to buying more work. There is more work out there than I can shake a stick at. There is absolutely no reason in the world that unemployment rates are 7.9% when you think about how much work there is to do upgrading and revamping aging housing stock like you see on forclosure.com. For example, I just put 15 new central a/c’s on my credit card to install over the next year. How about banksters put some effort into those forclosures? No profit? There is a tsunami of work to do. I gotta go buy some hardwood flooring now for my new vacancy that starts today. I have about 15 vacancies a year and thats just one guy. The people leaving are (drumbeat) dude on drugs w/ wife an baby and her gay sister who is mad at paying foir everybody. They are going to move back in w/ her mom. I recommend Floor and Decor.
The wave, the flood, the tide, or whatever you want to call it is coming, but it will only be a trickle when it hits the MLS.
The renovation business would be better if houses were taken away from squatters and put into the hands of someone who’s economic value isn’t derived from free housing. Flippers, REO-to-rental owners, investors and owner-occupants would all spend money fixing up these properties. Squatters spend nothing.
I hope it’s a credit card with airline miles.
[...] the original: The failure of loan mods will cause a new wave of foreclosures » OC … Filed Under CIA, corelogic, failure, foreclosure, foreclosures, home prices, housing, housing [...]