Foreclosures Delays End…REOs Increase.
Looking for 2013 Real Estate Predictions…?
Anyone who follows housing won’t be surprised that bank foreclosures are on the rise.
Facts being facts, we are a long way from any sort of true housing
recovery. A recovery in the sense that there aren’t still millions of
underwater owners (up to 19,000,000 are STILL underwater).
The good news is that overall foreclosure activity continues to fall and a decline in new foreclosures are leading the drop.
The
bad news is that the huge backlog of homes already in the foreclosures
process, but long delayed, are finally going back to the banks in big
numbers.
Bank repossessions jumped 11% in November month-to-month
and rose 5% from November of 2011, according to RealtyTrac. That marks
the first annual jump in just over two years.
"Foreclosures are
continuing to hobble the U.S. housing market as lenders finally seize
properties that started the process a year or two ago — and much longer
in some cases," notes RealtyTrac's Daren Blomquist.
Blomquist
also warns that the drop in newly started foreclosures may be temporary,
as lenders adjust to new rules set forth by new state laws as well as
the National Mortgage Settlement signed early this year.
Bank Repossessions Surge
Bank repossessions, or the final
foreclosure stage when the banks take ownership of the home, jumped 11
percent in November, reports CNBC's Diana Olick.
