Foreclosure Rates Stay Steady, but Serious Delinquencies Decline
We have not seen the bottom of this foreclosure market yet. This is especially true in the winter season and an uncertain political climate. While there is a bright note that the FHA has once again waived the Anti-Flipping rule to allow people to rehab homes and sell them quickly there are other gloomy stats.
CoreLogic’s Home Price Index shows a 4th straight month of housing price declines for November. Prices fell 1.4% from October and are down 4.3% year over year. Most of this decline is being driven by dropping prices on distressed properties (foreclosures and short sales), but if you remove them from the equation, retail homes still fell 0.6% in November. Year over year, retail prices are up only slightly (which is actually decent news).
On the foreclosure front, serious delinquencies (mortgages that are more than 90 days past due or actually in foreclosure), declined to 9.3% in December. This is down from a high of 10.4% in December 2009. Foreclosures have stayed steady at 5.5% for 3 quarters ending June 2011.
In my opinion, we are seeing the market trying to figure out what to do. I am not sure there are any other homes that can go into foreclosure in masse. While we will see a steady stream, I think the flood is over.
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