Help for Short Sales which are anything but 'Short'

Short sales are expected to get 'shorter' starting June 15, 2012.  New guidelines directed at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will now be required to give home buyers of short sales notice of their final decision within 60 days.  The new guidelines also will require lenders to respond to short sale requests within 30 days of receiving an offer from a potential seller.

The expedited process is expect to be a much needed boost to our market.  Often sellers and home buyers have to wait months before they receive a decision from the lender on an offer for approval.  A good percentage of deals fall apart just from the long wait alone.

Nationally, short sales have been increasing in recent months as many lenders find them more appealing than foreclosures which can be more costly and take longer to remove from their books.

But what if banks don't comply?  Let's face it, we've had many of these so called regulations that are supposed to help sellers over this arduous process.  A short sale is anything but 'short'.  

Are short sales actually increasing?  I say that in our Northwest Suburban area, short sales are neck and neck with foreclosures.  In our market place, this 'trend' just hasn't happened.

Just a thought that I'll throw out there - by the time most lenders delay and abuse sellers with multiple offers continuing over a period of at least 6 months they could have foreclosed on the property.  Just checking the recent closings that are short sales, the market times are over 6 months from contract initiation to the close.  

That's not 'short' by anyone's standards.