From HousingWire:
Zombie foreclosures down 43% in third quarter from last year
Precisely 20,050 U.S. residential properties in the foreclosure process — but not yet repossessed by the foreclosing lender — were vacant “zombie” homes as of the end of the third quarter of 2015, down 27% from the previous quarter and down 43% from a year ago, RealtyTrac reports.
Vacant residential properties in the foreclosure process accounted for 1.3% of all vacant U.S. residential properties, with bank-owned homes, accounting for another 1.9% of all vacant properties as of the end of the third quarter.
The report shows a total of 1.5 million vacant U.S. residential properties, 1.8% of all 84.7 million U.S. residential properties. Among the 1.5 million vacant residential properties, 36.5% have at least one open loan and 6.2% are seriously underwater, meaning the combined value of loans secured by the property is at least 25% more than the estimated market value of the property.
“The overall inventory of homes in the foreclosure process has dropped 36% over the past year so it’s not too surprising to see a similarly dramatic drop in vacant zombie foreclosures,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. “What is surprising is there are so many vacant homes where the homeowners do not appear to be in financial distress — with only 3% in foreclosure or bank owned, and only 6% that are underwater. More than 63% of these vacant homes are not even encumbered by a loan, owned free and clear by the owner. The fact that the homeowners are not selling given the recovering real estate market in most areas indicates that many of these properties are in poor condition and in neighborhoods that have been left behind by the housing recovery.”
States with the most vacant “zombie” foreclosures were New Jersey (3,997), Florida (3,512), New York (3,365), Illinois (1,187) and Ohio (1,028).
States with the highest share of vacant “zombie” foreclosures as a percentage of total vacant properties were New Jersey (9.4%), New York (8.2%), Nevada (2.7%), Massachusetts (2.5%), and Illinois (2.1%).
Only six states posted a year-over-year increase in zombie foreclosures, most notably Massachusetts (up 66%) and New Jersey (up 29%).
At least NJ is a leader in something!
Plenty of zombies still around. Many I’ve seen have been vacant for so long that the stickers plastered on the doors and windows telling of violations and pending fines have faded and are completely illegible.
There’s one next o my sister in law where you can hear the smoke detectors and co2 detectors beeping day and night warning that their batteries need replacement.
@casparhenderson: “Companies exploit human weaknesses not because they are malicious or venal but because the market makes them do it”
3 –
Out of curiosity… what do you think the market is?
Marketwatch: The number of people who applied for U.S. unemployment benefits fell by 13,000 to 263,000 in the week ended Oct. 3, marking the lowest level since mid-July. The average of new claims over the past month, meanwhile, declined by 3,000 to seasonally adjusted 267,500, the Labor Department said Thursday.
[3] anon
That actually made sense.
Of course, the fact that you have an issue with market choice is vaguely scary.
Lemme guess: when you order at the bar, do you say “I’ll have the state-approved lite beer” (bonus points: name the comedian who said that)
Funny moment: Bernanke on Bloomberg Surveillance asked if Jonathan Papelbon should be named to the Fed. I don’t think he was expecting that question.
Morris County is finally cranking through tons of foreclosures and the banks are actually putting the REO on the market pretty quick too. The houses that were leveraged up to $400K-$600K in loans can now be had for $250K-$35oK. The approximate judgement on this house was $580K. Now that the bank has finally taken it back and put it on the market, someone can now buy it for $360K.
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/16-Oswego-Ave-Rockaway-NJ-07866/39496482_zpid/
How do I find a Property that was “Deed in lieu ” to bank 6 months ago? I cant find anything that the bank is selling the property
Here’s my A-twit impression of the day:
@TimJGraham 6:64 AM
When “Morning Joe” goes on an anti-Ben Carson rant, I always want to “play MSNBC” with them. “It’s because he’s black, right?”
Trumpkin [8];
$250k may be overvalued. Here’s where local knowledge is king. That property is next to the lake, but no lakefront. May be obligated to pay lake association dues (or arrears!), not mentioned in the listing. More likely than not, it was built as a seasonal lake cottage, then converted to year-round residence; less than desirable. There are many of those in that area. Plus Rockaway schools are underachiever “me too” quality with no commensurate discount on taxes.
5 minutes of Keene is worth hours of all the other sh!t everywhere……the guy is so well spoken, sober and informed….and hilarious……back to back yesterday he had Arthur Levitt and quizzed him on the Giants, el-Erian on the Jets, and then Bill Gross on the 49ers…..
Comrade Nom Deplume, from the Hub of the Solar System. says:
October 8, 2015 at 8:35 am
Funny moment: Bernanke on Bloomberg Surveillance asked if Jonathan Papelbon should be named to the Fed. I don’t think he was expecting that question.
#11 – True.
I was a Rockaway Township native until 2011. Owned, lived in and rented out several properties in two lake communities there (Telemark and Greenpond – low end, high end).
White Meadow Lake….forget it…unless you’re a gambler (never know who’s going to move in or what’s going to happen next) I’m not.
*A local term for White Meadow Lake was “White Ghetto Lake”.
Anon (#11)
Any details on Rockaway schools? We just moved there and don’t have kids yet, but I thought those schools were in top #100 in the state?
Trying to see if I am missing something here….
9.4% of vacant NJ properties were ‘zombies’. Can’t tell if that includes REO. If not it appears that REO is about equal to houses in foreclosure process. In that case c. 20% of NJ vacant homes are in process of being or are owned by banks.
So let me get this straight….
80% of NJ vacant homes are such POS that the neither the bank nor homeowner wants them? And, in the case of the homeowner they just upped and left even although they weren’t even being foreclosed upon? Just packed up and got right the he11 out of Dodge?
WTF?
I don’t think Rockaway is a bad option comparatively. There are plenty of towns that think they are haughtier than Rockaway, but realistically aren’t all that different. There is a big span in neighborhoods, as NJT mentions above. I knew lots of people that did the ‘starter home thing’ (which I think is a bad strategy generally) in WML. For folks who are on an exurban budget, I think it’s a better option than a number of other further out areas that might have a slightly nicer housing stock.
“A local term for White Meadow Lake was “White Ghetto Lake”.
Ouch.
#14 – K.D.M. was a good public grade school, Copeland (middle school) is crap. Morris Knolls (High School) is great.
St. Cecelia’s Catholic school down the road in Rockaway Borough is the best, though or, used to be – ‘Dem damn penguins and their rulers…all ‘education’ after that was easy.
NJT (#18) – Ok, thanks. How about Morris Hills? We’re in the southern part of the township (Richard Mine) so that’s the school for us.
We looked in WML back in ’12 when housing was down. My objections to it were the small lots and constant whir from route 80 which basically passes over. You’re also completely isolated by the highway. The roads are tight and hilly and people drive FAST around there. The place just felt congested. If you’re used to that then you might not object. The place we looked at went UC a few days later so the area does have appeal.
The irony of lake communities in NJ…
Highly desirable – Some, with a big big price premium, and I’m not talking water front.
Undesirable – Plenty
Hiawatha – Eh, Hopatcong – Eh, Indian – Nicer, Shongum – Desirable, Packanack and Pines – Desirable, Fayson – Eh, Smoke Rise – Pricey, WML – Eh, Mountain Lakes – Pinnacle, Budd Lake – Eh, Mohawk – Nicer, I won’t mention the absolute slums.
That’s generous for Budd Lake.
There are several nice ones in Sussex too(Culver lake/Lake Mohawk). There are several up that way 206/15 and I don’t know of any that are trashy.
Stunning video of deadly truck crash yesterday after someone’s mattress they were transporting fell off their vehicle, trucker swerved and crashed….
http://patch.com/new-jersey/verona/watch-doomed-truck-driver-swerved-miss-mattresses-dying-fiery-turnpike-crash?utm_source=alert-breakingnews&utm_medium=email&utm_term=police%20%26%20fire&utm_campaign=alert
Yeah I’d added Mohawk in an edit after I posted, forgot about it.
Jesus … why did he swerve, he should have just went straight for it, it was probably just a reflex action. He swerved that rig harder than I’d probably dare swerve a much smaller car.
[26] grim
I used to drive buses in college and learned that it was often better to hit what was in front of you rather than swerve to avoid. The exception being people but in all cases, the idea was to brake as quickly as circumstances permitted and not swerve.
It is also an axiom in NASCAR that if you see an accident starting to happen in front of you, drive at it. The idea is that the cars will not be in the same spot when you get there so you may avoid it. In the alternative, if you do hit, you are hitting at your safest point.
Grim,
Found this while researching for an intervention motion. You might find it useful when dealing with all those lawyers.
https://www.eff.org/files/filenode/manalapan/motiontointervene-package.pdf
[12] chifi
“5 minutes of Keene is worth hours of all the other sh!t everywhere”
So true. And you gotta love a Red Sox fan from New York State.
(admittedly, upstate NY is solidly Red Sox Nation. Tons of Sox fans there. I asked someone why one time and it was because of their hatred of Downstate, and the Yankees are downstate).
Driver swerved hard because SUV cut him off, guess he did not want to kill anyone that day, hope they thank his family.
http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2015/10/witness_says_driver_in_fatal_turnpike_accident_swe.html#comments
Heard the SUV thing on CBS this morn, video above doesn’t show that.
If anything, seems the center lane of traffic may have come to a stop in front of him, maybe because someone swerved right to avoid the mattress in the left lane.
Appears to me by the time he hits his brakes in the center lane if he doesn’t swerve he is going to drive over about four stopped/slowly moving cars in front of him.
I don’t see him being cut off directly.
Ah I didn’t see the SUV in that video.
And what the he11 is the dashcam guy listening to on his radio?
“(admittedly, upstate NY is solidly Red Sox Nation. Tons of Sox fans there. I asked someone why one time and it was because of their hatred of Downstate, and the Yankees are downstate)”
Hahaha. Flyers fan here from upstate NY.
Growing up you couldn’t be for the Sabres (competing city upstate) or the Rags or Isles (downstate issue). Pretty much left Flyers or Leafs. Glad I chose the former. The mid-seventies were a much better time because of it.
Solidly Yanks though. Still remember my mother yelling at me during those years staying up too late to watch the World Series on some antennae black and white TV that only got three major networks and PBS. Catfish Hunter, Reggie, Billy Martin….
33 – Either soundgarden or audioslaves. Sounds like Chris Cornell.
McCarthy drops bid for Speakership…hmmm, everyone gave Boehner crap about it, this guy messed up in like 1 interview……
#11 it is probably worth less then the list price. I lived out in that area and its a complete mess. Rockaway was one step up from Lake Stockholm/Jefferson Twshp.
Let me say this not to insult anyone. Rockway was much better than Lake Stockholm, NJ/ Jefferson. Lets put it this way, I honestly thought before I left, I was in Deepark, NY. Yeah you could not tell the difference. It was like watching that movie Affliction.
btw, I love Raleigh!!!
What is that lake in Blairstown called Crystal Lake or someting?
I went to Summer Camp in Blairstown. There was rumored to be a Crystal Lake, but we always assumed that was just a camp legend.
Camp NoBeBoSco
Seems legit
http://fridaythe13thfilms.com/bts/locations/part1.html
Pretty cool. They weren’t lying. So was the hidden elevator in hernia hill real too?
[27]Nom – I agree with the first part, somewhat with the second. When I was in college, I drove buses to. I once hit a Buick 3 or 4 times with my bus after the old guy locked up his brakes for no reason (he saw a parked school van on the other side of the road and mistook it for a stopped school bus in service). I kept my wheel perfectly straight while I braked, punting and re-hitting him several times. Both of us stayed perfectly in our lane while I shortened his car by 3 or 4 feet.
As for racing on Superspeedways (and I’ve done some), it depends on the type of car. Open wheel formula cars tend to bounce and following them to the wall often opens up a gap as they rebound towards the infield. Full bodied cars tend to stick, but 200mph speeds tend to make even the full bodied cars a crapshoot.
[26] grim
I used to drive buses in college and learned that it was often better to hit what was in front of you rather than swerve to avoid. The exception being people but in all cases, the idea was to brake as quickly as circumstances permitted and not swerve.
It is also an axiom in NASCAR that if you see an accident starting to happen in front of you, drive at it. The idea is that the cars will not be in the same spot when you get there so you may avoid it. In the alternative, if you do hit, you are hitting at your safest point.
Former Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett plans to plead guilty to charges she steered no-bid contracts worth more than $23 million to an education consulting firm where she once worked in return for promises of hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks, other perks and a job, federal prosecutors revealed Thursday.
…
The 23-count indictment alleges that almost immediately after Mayor Rahm Emanuel installed her as public schools chief in 2012, Byrd-Bennett began scheming with Gary Solomon and Thomas Vranas, co-owners of SUPES Academy, to secure the contracts to train principals and school administrators
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-barbara-byrd-bennett-chicago-public-schools-charged-met-20151008-story.html
Boehner staying till a Speaker is voted. Guess a lot of work will get done before he steps down. Will put the finger on the far right
How would a Republican-Democratic coalition work? By enlisting Democrats to help the more-mainstream Republicans in the House elect the new leadership. In exchange for Democratic votes, the new leaders would promise that any legislation that had the support of a majority of the House (including Republicans and Democrats) could be considered on the floor.
The Republicans have a 247-188 majority in the House, but getting anything done requires the support of a small faction of 40 to 50 tea partiers. Currently (with few exceptions), the leadership won’t bring any bills to the floor that don’t have the support of at least 218 Republicans. In other words, legislation doesn’t just need a majority of members but a majority of the majority.
A coalition would break the veto power now held by a small minority of ultraconservative, no-compromise Republicans.
In exchange for the Democrats’ votes, the new leaders of the House would repeal the so-called Hastert Rule. This would allow all legislation that has bipartisan support to move forward, and not just legislation that has the support of the ultraright.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/its-time-for-a-republican-democratic-coalition-in-the-house-2015-10-08?dist=afterbell
Can’t get enough Rex Nutting articles
‘What happened with the $100 million that Newark’s schools got from Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg?” asks a recent headline. “Not much” is the short answer. In her recently released book, “The Prize: Who’s in Charge of America’s Schools?” journalist Dale Russakoff attempts to answer the question more fully.
“The goal of improving education in Newark,” she told the Hechinger Report, “is not a hopeless one. But viewing it as something that can be imposed from the top down as opposed from the bottom up, or at least in combination, was really a very central flaw.”
The Facebook founder negotiated his gift with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and then-Mayor Cory Booker in 2010, and it flowed into Newark’s public-school system shortly thereafter. The bulk of the funds supported consultants and the salaries and pensions of teachers and administrators, so the donation only reinforced the bureaucratic and political ills that have long plagued public education in the Garden State.
Mr. Zuckerberg is not the first private donor to fail at reforming public education by working with government—and he won’t be the last. Such efforts date at least to the 1960s, with the Ford Foundation’s ill-fated campaign to decentralize New York City’s public schools by giving community boards the power to fire and hire teachers and principals.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/zuckerbergs-100-million-lesson-1444087064
@charlescwcooke: I swear to God, we’re two news cycles away from discovering that this guy is Batman. http://t.co/ZCE6Z24vQW http://t.co/ohbYWU36uP
Yome,
Dale Russakoff is a Washington Post writer. ’nuff said.
Re:50 – locals did not like him moving in on their women.Guy with the knife seen it before, best bet is to check yourself.
re: #52 – correction – did not like him moving in on their men so the Sacramento people say. Anyway 3 on 1 means lots of lumps even for a seasoned fighter, once a knife is introduced time to run, I have seen plenty of tough guys cut like butter once a knife or bottle shows up.
Get him a agent, he should be hanging with the famous and dancing with the stars.
re # 49 – Was in Newark today, drove by the now vacant Caramel Towers, a now empty husk ready for demolition. I was taking a shortcut due to Parkway being gridlock, back way to ext 13 on turnpike. Some vacant newly built retail around. There are is about 10% different than 20 years ago, so not so much, people still blow red lights and there is the omnipresent trash/recyler pushing their carts. Didn’t the school system say they were in chains or something lately because they are still under State Management?
Zuck spent no time there, and Booker gave it to the teachers as a bonus. Heck if were my 100 million I would have bought them all books…….
re # 46- all seats in house are up for election next year, and 34 in Senate. Who would want that job knowing their chances are low for more than a year and for reelection if they pull money? Both sides have PACs, and both have perverted it by saying a creature of statute is a person, but change won’t happen, didn’t in 08 or 12. So why would anyone think it will be different this time? I will be turning my TV off.
leftwing
Lots of garbage out of you yesterday. Suggest you go research Deferred Income and how it works. If you want a primer, look back at the last time it was discussed in here.
Does NJ have some Lehman ARS’s it needs to get rid of?
About half of private sector employees have no retirement plan on the job. So some state governments are now trying to help them save. A handful have passed laws requiring employers to funnel a small percentage of these workers’ pay into an individual retirement account run by the state. New Jersey could be the next to pass such a plan.
http://www.npr.org/2015/10/06/446300013/states-to-workers-let-us-help-you-build-your-retirement-savings
Clot (previous)
“My money would be on City. They have ownership and a manager that prefers winning titles over stockpiling cash.”
How did that work out for them last year?
Fabian,
Caught your op-ed:
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/33155-the-deadly-fraud-of-american-exceptionalism