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Over 36,000 homes valued at $1 million or more were foreclosed on – or at least served with a notice of default – in 2011, according to data compiled by RealtyTrac.
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Home values nationwide showed minimal monthly appreciation in August 2011, according to the Zillow Real Estate Market Report. The Zillow Home Value Index increased 0.1 percent from July to August. On a year-over-year basis, home values declined 4.5 percent to $172,600. Home values have fallen 28.3 percent since they peaked in June 2006. Regionally, 68 of the 157 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) covered by Zillow experienced monthly home value appreciation, though minimal in many areas. The foreclosure liquidation rate, which measures the number of homes lost to the bank, stayed steady at around 9.2 out of every 10,000 homes foreclosed in August. This is down from the rate of 10.9 out of every 10,000 homes in October 2010, before the robo-signing lawsuits slowed the pace of foreclosures in most states. However, foreclosure liquidations remained high in many of the hardest-hit metro areas in California, Nevada, and Arizona. In Las Vegas and Phoenix, more than 30 out of every 10,000 homes were liquidated in August. More info
Foreclosure activity slowed in April, and foreclosure filings decreased in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Washington, according to ForeclosureRadar’s latest report.
Foreclosure filings in California fell to lows not seen since fall of 2008. Notice of Default filings declined 25.8 percent, and Notice of Trustee Sale filings decreased 10.9 percent compared with March. On a year-over-year basis, foreclosure filings were down as well, with Notice of Default filings down 28 percent and Notice of Trustee Sale filings falling 31.2 percent from April 2010.
Foreclosure sale cancellations rose 27 percent compared with March, and activity on the courthouse steps slowed. The average time to foreclose continued to climb, increasing 3.3 percent to 312 days.
Derek Kravitz, AP Real Estate Writer, On Tuesday March 8, 2011, 1:41 pm EST
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans who owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth rose at the end of last year, preventing many people from selling their homes in an already weak housing market.
About 11.1 million households, or 23.1 percent of all mortgaged homes, were underwater in the October-December quarter, according to report released Tuesday by housing data firm CoreLogic. That’s up from 22.5 percent, or 10.8 million households, in the July-September quarter.
The number of underwater mortgages had fallen in the previous three quarters. But that was mostly because more homes had fallen into foreclosure.
Underwater mortgages typically rise when home prices fall. Home prices in December hit their lowest point since the housing bust in 11 of 20 major U.S. metro areas. In a healthy housing market, about 5 percent of homeowners are underwater.
Roughly two-thirds of homeowners in Nevada with a mortgage had negative home equity, the worst in the country. Arizona, Florida, Michigan and California were next, with up to 50 percent of homeowners with mortgages in those states underwater.
Oklahoma had the smallest percentage of underwater homeowners in the October-December quarter, at 5.8 percent. Only nine states recorded percentages less than 10 percent.
In addition to the more than 11 million households that are underwater, another 2.4 million homeowners are nearing that point.
When a mortgage is underwater, the homeowner often can’t qualify for mortgage refinancing and has little recourse but to continue making payments in hopes the property eventually regains its value.
The slide in home prices began stabilizing last year. But prices are expected to continue falling in many markets due to still-high levels of foreclosure and unemployment.
That means homes purchased at the height of the real estate boom are unlikely to recover lost value for years.
Underwater mortgages also dampen home sales. Homeowners who might otherwise sell their home refuse to take a loss or can’t get the bank to agree to a short sale — when a lender lets a borrower sell their property for less than the amount owed on the mortgage.
Home sales have been weaker in areas where there are a large number of homeowners with negative equity.
Many banks are also requiring homebuyers to put as much as 20 percent of a home’s value as down payment and the Obama administration is pushing for a 10 percent down payment requirement on all conventional loans guaranteed by the ailing mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Few homeowners in states hit hard by foreclosures, including Colorado, Georgia and Nevada, have 20 percent or more equity in their homes. Higher down payments make it increasingly difficult for those people to sell their homes.
The total amount of negative equity increased to $751 billion nationwide, up from $744 billion in the previous quarter.
Alex Veiga, AP Real Estate Writer, On Thursday November 11, 2010, 5:44 am EST
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The number of U.S. homes repossessed by lenders last month fell by the sharpest margin this year, as several major lenders temporarily halted most or all of their foreclosures amid allegations thousands of foreclosures were handled improperly.
Home repossessions dropped 9 percent from September to October, foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday.
The decline represents the first significant hitch in a foreclosure steamroller that’s had lenders on pace to seize more than 1 million homes this year.
In recent weeks, some lenders that had suspended taking action against borrowers severely behind in payments have announced plans to resume doing so, though at a more measured pace, in an attempt to ensure there aren’t any flaws in the process.
That means the number of homes lost to foreclosure should begin picking up again, but at a much slower pace.
“We will still see some softness in the numbers in November, just because of the lag time from when you announce something like this and when you can actually enact it and then reverse it,” said Rick Sharga, a senior vice president at RealtyTrac.
Lenders such as Bank of America, Ally Financial’s GMAC Mortgage and JPMorgan Chase & Co. suspended some or all of their foreclosure activity after the foreclosure documents mess erupted in late September. In recent weeks, they announced plans to resume some foreclosure actions.
Bank of America announced Oct. 8 it would withdraw for review some 102,000 pending affidavits related to foreclosure proceedings in 23 states where courts play a role in the process.
About two weeks ago, the lender said it would begin resubmitting those affidavits, a process that was expected to take several weeks to complete.
It continues to have a hold on trustee sales or sheriff’s auctions of foreclosed homes, and is still delaying foreclosures in the 27 states that don’t require a judge’s approval as it reviews its cases in those states.
JPMorgan Chase said last week it would be restarting the foreclosure process later this month after halting foreclosure proceedings on 127,000 loans in 40 states.
“We expect it will take about three or four months to basically get back up to speed,” said spokesman Thomas Kelly.
GMAC, meanwhile, has been reviewing its thousands of foreclosure cases and moved ahead with them on a case-by-case basis.
“The moratorium may have been lifted by just about all the banks, but it’s gone from a foreclosure moratorium to a foreclosure slowdown,” said banking analyst Nancy Bush of NAB Research.
Banks have seized more than 909,000 homes through the first 10 months of the year and, even with the delays caused by the temporary foreclosure freeze, are on pace to take back more than 1 million homes this year.
“It’s almost impossible to imagine that we wouldn’t surpass that number at this point,” Sharga said.
Economic woes, such as unemployment or reduced income, continue to be the main catalysts for foreclosures.
In all, 93,236 homes were taken back by lenders in October, down from a peak 102,134 in September, said RealtyTrac, which tracks notices for defaults, scheduled home auctions and home repossessions — warnings that can lead up to a home eventually being lost to foreclosure.
Despite the sharp drop, October’s tally was still 21 percent higher than a year ago. Lenders have foreclosed on an average of more than 91,000 properties each month this year.
The number of homes taken back by banks fell sharply from September in many of the foreclosure hotbed states, including Arizona, California, Illinois and Nevada.
Florida bucked that trend, with repossessions rising 1 percent from September. They nearly doubled versus October last year.
“There were probably a whole batch of foreclosures that were already in process when the freeze was announced that led to Florida’s numbers being not affected as much in October as some of the other states,” Sharga said.
The number of properties receiving an initial default notice — the first step in the foreclosure process — slipped 2 percent last month from September, and was down 19 percent versus October last year, RealtyTrac said.
Initial defaults have fallen on an annual basis the past nine months as lenders have taken steps to manage the levels of distressed properties they have on their books.
All told, 332,172 properties received a foreclosure-related warning last month, down 4 percent from September and essentially flat versus the same month last year, RealtyTrac said. That translates to one in 389 U.S. homes.
Among states, Nevada posted the highest foreclosure rate last month, with one in every 79 households receiving a foreclosure notice. That’s nearly 5 times the national average.
Rounding out the top 10 states with the highest foreclosure rate in October were: Florida, Arizona, California, Michigan, Utah, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois and Colorado.
