Foreclosures Fall 8% During Last Month Alone! What this means for the market

Foreclosures Fall 8%, New Wave Expected

How it will affect the market

One of the plagues of today’s market continues to be foreclosures. It’s a word that makes many home owners shudder and a feeling of malcontent while to others it’s a “blessing” for they can possibly afford to buy this home for their family. I read an article this morning in Realty Mag with some [encouraging ] news about foreclosures and their percentages falling. First, however, we need to understand why foreclosures are more likely than not worse for the economy than not.

It doesn’t just affect the previous owners of the home, but it also affects the bank that held the mortgage, the value in your neighborhood and the market in general. Let me explain why:  Say you’re living in a neighborhood where houses are going for about 400k and you’re looking to sell. Another home is going for 410k while a third is going for 390k. However a home just around the corner has just been foreclosed upon and sold for 320k, much less than its value had it not been foreclosed upon. Now the average price in your neighborhood has just plummeted from 400k to 380k and possibly lower. This has been happening more and more frequently all over the U.S. and the value of homes has been falling.

Accoding to the article “Foreclosures Fall 8%, New Wave Expected” released yesterday in RealtorMag, foreclosures continue to drop. At the beginning of this year foreclosures fell 19% in January alone and followed up with dropping 8% more in February. “The big drops in foreclosures have served as a hopeful sign in the housing market that the foreclosure crisis was finally fading”.   

Experts say that banks haven’t quite solved the foreclosure issue, so don’t get too excited, but things are certainly looking up. Due to the new settlement plan there has been a prediction that in the months ahead the foreclosure process could be sped up by lenders and the signs are already here.

So what can we pull from this? We know foreclosures have been steadily declining in the past several months, but that there will be a slight increase due to the new settlement plan. Where does that leave us after everyone is settled into the new plan? The settlement plan is designed to help those underwater and stop this Catch 22 of foreclosures in our country….so those looking to buy had better buy now as your home will only appreciate in value.

For the whole article on this click this link.

Lynn Tardibuono – Flipper Chick- Real Estate Agent and Co-Owner of Sun Pacific Mortgage and Real Estate.  Serving Sonoma County since 1988.  Her number is (707)523-2099 and you can also visit the website at http://www.sunpacmortgage.com