I read this on mortgage news today, and this numbers are kind of scary, so many properties will definitely have an impact in the housing industry and the overall economy of our nation.

Here is the article

7.2 Million Loans Behind on Payments, One Million REOs
More than 7.2 million mortgage loans are now behind on payments and one million properties are now in real estate-owned status, according to the January 2010 Mortgage Monitor report from Lender Processing Services in Jacksonville, Fla. Home delinquency rates have surpassed 10%. The total foreclosure inventory rate is 3.2%, and the total non-current rate, which combines foreclosures and delinquencies, sits at 13.3%. The percent of "new" serious delinquencies is 4.64%, higher than any other year analyzed for the same period. Of loans that were current as of Dec. 31, 2008, by Dec. 2009 there were 2.3 million new loans that were considered seriously delinquent. Prime loans, including agency, non-agency and jumbo, have experienced deterioration at a worse pace on a relative basis than subprime, FHA and all loans as a whole. Within the prime category, loans with current unpaid principal balances between $417,000 and $600,000 have performed the worse, LPS said. States with most non-current loans include Florida, Nevada, Mississippi, Arizona, Georgia, California, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois and Ohio. States with fewest non-current loans are North Dakota, South Dakota, Alaska, Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska, Vermont, Colorado, Oregon and Washington.

For the first time in five weeks, mortgage rates have increased, which threatens the housing market recovery.

According to Freddie Mac, 30-year fixed mortgage rate increased to 5.01 percent, from 4.98 percent in the previous week.

A 15-year mortgage rate averaged 4.40 percent.

"The spring will probably look really good," said George Mokrzan, senior economist at Huntington National Bank in Columbus, Ohio. "My concern is more the second half of the year. The tax benefits go away and I think the mortgage rates will probably go up."

FNMA ANNOUNCED THAT OCUPANT/OWNER BUYERS WILL RECEIVE 3.5% TOWARDS CLOSING COSTS IF THEY PURCHASE A REO FNMA BEFORE MAY 1, 2010

This might be the best time in years to buy a home in Michigan. Prices are affordable. Sellers are willing to compromise. And inventory levels are high. If you've been debating whether it's time to invest in a Michigan home, now might be the perfect time to act.
 
Congress recently passed an extension to the first-time homebuyers tax credit of $8,000, and added a move-up buyers tax credit, which applies to every other homebuyer, of $6,500, see the NAR web site for more details at this link
 
http://www.realtor.org/home_buyers_and_sellers/2009_first_time_home_buyer_tax_credit .

Michigan has been hit harder by the national recession than most states. Unemployment is high here, and wages have been falling. Because of this, housing prices in the state have remained at affordable levels.

According to data from the Michigan Association of Realtors, the median sales price of the average house in Michigan stood at $108,692 in September of last year. That's down 8.43 percent from the same month one year earlier. At the same time, a growing number of homeowners are trying to sell their homes, and they're willing to compromise to do it.

A seller here might be willing to knock $5,000, $10,000 or even $15,000 off the asking price of their home if it means finally selling it. Many sellers are also willing to cover the costs of needed repairs or have the work done themselves before closing. And if you need the real estate transaction to close by a certain date, you can usually get the sellers to agree to that, too. The reason for all this is simple: Michigan is in the midst of a buyer's market. Buyers, then, are calling the shots when it comes to housing transactions.

Many sellers are willing to go to great lengths to sell their homes in Michigan because they are actually in danger of losing them to foreclosure. According to RealtyTrac, an online provider of real estate information, Michigan ranks fourth in the nation in foreclosure activity. According to the company, 16,468 households in Michigan received a foreclosure filing in the third quarter of this year, 9,792 of them in the Detroit area alone.

Michigan homeowners who are struggling to make their mortgage payments are willing to negotiate with buyers if it means moving their homes before they lose them to foreclosure.

Of course, just because Michigan is experiencing a buyer's market, that doesn't mean that you'll be able to steal a house. You'll still have to negotiate in good faith, and you'll still have to pay at least a reasonable price. But Michigan's housing statistics don't lie: Homes here are more affordable than they've been in a decade. And if you're a savvy buyer, you'll be able to purchase more home for less money in the state.

Buying a home has not been this affordable in 20 years due to the housing crisis.

An average family in America with an annual income of $64,000 can afford 72.3 percent of all homes sold in the U.S.

In the first three months of 2009 72.5 percent of homes sold we affordable and in 2008 55 percent of homes sold were affordable.

NAHB Chairman Joe Robson, a homebuilder from Tulsa, Oklahoma said in a statement, "The increase in affordability -- along with the $8,000 federal tax credit for home buyers -- is stimulating demand, particularly among young, first-time buyers."

The NAHB considers a home to be affordable if a family annual income could commit no more than 28 percent of their take home pay towards housing cost.

More houses are becoming affordable due to this years low home prices and low interest rates. The average home value in the U.S decreased 32 percent from its peak in 2006. Mortgage rates have reached a low under 5 percent for a 30-year mortgage.

During the second quarter more than 30 percent of homes sold were sold less than what was originally paid.

Anyone who has purchased a home within the last five years and sold during the second quarter has lost money, according to Stan Humphries, Zillow's vice president in charge of data and analytics.

Many homes are on the market due to foreclosures.

Home prices have become more affordable due to the increased volume of REOs-home repossessed by the bank. In July, 87,000 homes have been repossessed which is triple the amount of July 2007.

According to Brad Geisen, founder of Foreclosure.com, foreclosed homes are sold at a large discount to produce a quick sale.

"The big banks are finally pricing their properties to what people will pay for them," he said. "Foreclosure inventory is now selling at about the same rate it's coming in."

Many homeowners under President Obama's foreclosure-prevention program may be at risk of foreclosure.

According to a Treasury Department guideline issued last month, mortgage companies have until January 31 to review all trial modifications that have been modified due to the Home Affordable Program. New guidelines will be issued next week.

Loan Services must review all trail modifications and must determine if borrowers have made all their payments and handed in necessary paperwork.

For the homeowners who have not, they will get letter giving 30 days to comply.

The goal of the new guideline is to try and clear up the backlog of borrowers stuck in trail periods.

Home owners have waited seven or eight months just to hear if they qualify for permanent mortgage adjustments.

 "About 450,000 homeowners currently have HAMP trial modifications and have demonstrated a willingness and ability to make timely payments for at least three months," said Richard Neiman, superintendent of the New York State Banking Department.

"Now, unfortunately and very alarmingly, these same homeowners face the prospect of foreclosure strictly on account of documentation issues," he said.

Paperwork has caused an issue for the president's foreclosure-prevention program. Homeowners have been claiming, servicers are losing the documents sent in, but loan services have been claiming homeowners have not sent them in.

Next week new guidelines will be issued so the process can be expedited. The new guidelines might lighten the paperwork.

For the first time in a month, mortgage applications dropped 11 percent.

The Mortgage Bankers Association's index of loan applications dropped 11 percent to 513 last week.

In November, since the first time home buyer tax credit was set to expire, home sales have dropped at the end of the year. The first time home buyer tax credit has been extended through June 30.

"We're seeing some stabilization in the housing market," Russell Price, a senior economist at Ameriprise Financial Inc. in Detroit, said before the report. "The spring selling season should be fairly positive, especially if we do start to see some positive employment growth and mortgage rates remain fairly low."

He purchase index dropped to 215.6 from 223 the week before.

Last week mortgage rates on a 30 year fixed increased to 5.02 percent. At the end of March, the rate reached its lowest of 4.61 percent

In December, new home sales rose 3 percent to a 366,000 annual rate.

Learn about the main cause of the sub prime debacle, the repeal of the Glass Stegal Act. Watch the upcoming politics as the congress attempts to re-enact the principles of Glass Stegal. Millions of dollars will change hands as the banking lobbists try and prevent  the change back. They want to continue to gamble with our money.

RATES ~ Interest rates, too, moved little, though it is important to note that the week included the usual pendulum swing among investors from confidence in the recovery to worry. The 10-year Treasury note yield stood at 3.818% as the week began, but concerns inspired by the prior week's disappointing employment data (with the reported 85,000 jobs lost in December) weighed on investor confidence in the economy, and the 10-year T-note yield edged down to 3.722% by the end of Tuesday. At the same time, investors appeared to be moving their money from the stock market to both Treasury securities and corporate bonds, having seemingly lost a bit of their appetite for risk (briefly: for a day).

Absent from Washington and President Obama is a mention of a Federal Initiative to convert the federal vehicle fleet to natural gas. This would mandate that to start with all federal vehicles, ie. postal, ect. be converted to run on natural gas. Later the states could follow, and than the local municipalities. We have plenty of natural gas reserves, and we could kick our habit of foreign oil dependence. This would stimulate the economy, create a new industry and create jobs. This is a no brainer! Why the silence from Washington?