Short Sale and Foreclosure – Is There Light on the Horizon?
The beginning of 2010 seems to hold some good news for long suffering homeowners across the US. Statistics released by Bank Foreclosure Sale indicate that the rate of new foreclosure listings has shown a notable decrease in January. Is it possible that short sales and foreclosure figures in the residential market may be stabilizing. The thousands of homeowners across the nation that live in fear of losing their homes are surely praying that it is.
The figures definitely seem encouraging with a 10% decrease in the numbers of foreclosures for sale from December 2009 to a total of 315, 710. The bad news is that, although these figures indicate a month on month decrease they are still 15% higher than the corresponding period in 2009. Many discount this though, and feel that any improvement is good news at this point.
If one considers a state by state comparison the story looks equally rosy. The six states topping the foreclosure for sale rate list have also experienced similar decreases in defaults. These states (Nevada, California, Arizona, Texas, Florida and Illinois) accounted for a whopping 60% of the national total so an improvement in their foreclosure rate bodes well for the national market in general.
To put this improvement into perspective, Texas and California both saw 11% decreases in foreclosures and Florida a respectable 14.9% drop. Only one of the top 10 saw an increase at metropolitan area level that being Phoenix, Arizona with a scant 4% climb. These states were by no means the only ones that saw a drop in the rate of foreclosure. Ohio saw a 5.5% drop, North Carolina 11.3%, Alabama 28.4% and New Jersey with a huge 39.3% decrease in repossessions.
The flip side of the coin is the increase in the numbers of foreclosures in several states such as Oregon with a 13.5% rise, Nebraska jumping 68.4% and Delaware with a staggering 78.9 hike in foreclosure figures. These increases are, however, attributed to the unabated effects of unemployment in these states.
Overall though, when one considers the big short sale and foreclosure picture, the optimists are well justified in seeing a ray of hope in these figures. Let us hope that this trend continues throughout this year and beyond.
About This Post
