The popular belief that the seven million Americans who lost their homes to foreclosure during the Housing Crash are healed, whole and forgiven of their debts after seven years have passed is only partly true. For foreclosures, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac set a seven-year waiting period before defaulters can apply for a mortgage, measured from the completion date of … Read More »

Nearly half of all homeowners who lost their homes to foreclosure during the housing bust own their own homes again and most have a mortgage. just nine years after home prices bottomed in 2007. A new report from the Urban Institute that compares credit profiles of renters and owners found nine million (7.1 percent) of all adult consumers with a … Read More »

Foreclosure activity rose in July, up 7 percent from the previous month and up 14 percent from a year ago. July was the fifth consecutive month with a year-over-year increase in overall foreclosure activity following 53 consecutive months of decreases. “The increase in overall foreclosure activity over the last five months has been driven primarily by rapidly rising bank repossessions, … Read More »

  What would an influx of 3.8 million entry-level homes do for housing affordability? Limited inventory and strong demand continue to push home prices higher in America’s hottest housing markets, leading to declining affordability.  Forecasters are raising their predictions as tight inventories of homes, particularly lower priced properties, keep first-time buyers on the sidelines. Those 3.8 million homes, nearly twice … Read More »

For the business of residential real estate investing, these are not the best of times.  Bargains on attractive properties to flip or to hold and convert to rentals are tough to find.  Foreclosures and short sales have fallen to ten percent of home sales, the lowest level in four years, according to RealtyTrac.  Moreover, NAR reports the foreclosure discount has shrunk … Read More »

  Only one out of four single family home and condo sales in May-24.6 percent-were all-cash purchases, down from 30.4 percent a year ago to the lowest level since November 2009. Distress sales also fell to a new low of 10.5 percent of all sales in May, down from 18.3 percent a year ago to the lowest level since January … Read More »

Though about five million families lost their homes to foreclosure from 2009 to 20013, some seven million consumers’credit was negatively impacted by the housing crash.  Today, only 1.2 million, or 18 percent, have completely recovered.  But over the next five years some 2.2 million of the remaining 5.7 million unrecovered consumers could meet agency underwriting guidelines, according to a report from … Read More »

One reason inventories for first-time buyers are chronically depleted is that lower priced homes continue to bear a more of the brunt of negative equity that those priced higher. A new report from Black Knight found that in March the number of underwater borrowers decreased by 1.6 million from this time last year and that the negative equity population has … Read More »

Homeownership has fallen farther and faster among adults in the middle age bracket than among younger Millennials whose attitudes towards homeownership have been the focus of attention among housing professionals, according to the newest Census data.  Though only about 34.6 percent of adults under 35 own a home, the percentage of those in the 35-44 year old bracket who own … Read More »

  Foreclosures soared in March, jumping 20 percent from a 104-month low in February increasing for the first time on a year-over-year basis in four and a half years, since September 2010. Foreclosure filings hit a total of 122,060 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings in March, according to RealtyTrac’s quarterly foreclosure report. The increase was driven primarily by a jump … Read More »