Buy or Rent driving Wealth Inequality?

Posted on May 8, 2015 by grim

From CNBC:

The Wealth Gap Is Expanding as More People Rent, Study Says

For the majority of American homeowners, their house is their single largest asset. Despite the crash in home values in the last decade, that still holds true.

That crash, however, created a much larger share of renters, and these Americans are not enjoying the new wealth that now-rising home prices afford. Ninety percent of metropolitan housing markets have seen a decline in their homeownership rates, while home values are rising and incomes are flat, and that is widening the wealth gap, according to a new study by the National Association of Realtors, which looked at homeownership, home values and income growth from 2000 to 2013.

“Homeownership plays a pivotal role in the U.S. economy and has historically been one of the primary sources of wealth accumulation for middle-class families,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the Realtors.

“Unfortunately, due to an underperforming labor market, insufficient housing supply and overly stringent underwriting standards since the recession, homeownership has plunged to a rate not seen in over two decades,” Yun added. “As a result, the country has become more unequal as the number of homeowners has fallen while the number of renters has significantly risen.”
…
There is also a new asset class of single-family rental homes, the outgrowth of the housing crash, when investors swooped in and bought up millions of distressed properties.

This provided even more options and incentives for people to rent, especially those with families who want to live in good school districts. Now, as home prices rise again, none of these renters are now experiencing any of the wealth growth their homeowner neighbors are; they are instead seeing increases in monthly rent charges, which detracts from wealth.
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“Changes in wealth during this period are especially profound in high-cost metro areas that have seen robust price growth,” added Yun. “For instance, a typical homeowner in San Jose, California, enjoyed an increase of $210,671 in housing wealth, while renters were left behind and likely exposed to annual rent increases.”

The wealth gap is increasing most in the largest metropolitan markets, like New York and Los Angeles, but it is happening everywhere. In the Kansas City metropolitan area, the homeownership rate dropped by more than 3 percent between 2010 and 2013, but the change in wealth for homeowners grew by almost $20,000. That’s $20,000 in wealth that renters did not see.

The study also showed that income inequality, based on the Gini index, a measure created by the World Bank, is widening as well. That is exacerbating the wealth gap in certain metro markets as well. For instance, Miami has the third-highest income gap in the nation.

At the same time, the homeownership rate fell by 3.3 percent from 2000 to 2013, while homeowners gained more than $50,000 in household wealth, due to rising home values. Renters, who were likely already on the lower-income side, saw none of those gains.

The newfound popularity of renting among young millennials may come back to bite them, as the gap continues to widen. That divide is also certain to have political ramifications, as candidates for the 2016 presidential election shape their platforms on unemployment and homeownership, at the same time courting the all-important millennial vote.

Posted in Demographics, Economics, National Real Estate | 71 Comments

Mortgage delinquency becoming a non-issue, except in NJ

Posted on May 7, 2015 by grim

From HousingWire:

MBA: Mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures drop in 1Q

The delinquency rate for mortgage loans on one-to-four-unit residential properties decreased to a seasonally adjusted rate of 5.54% of all loans outstanding at the end of the first quarter of 2015.

This was the lowest level since the second quarter of 2007. The delinquency rate decreased 14 basis points from the previous quarter, and 57 basis points from one year ago, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s National Delinquency Survey.

The delinquency rate includes loans that are at least one payment past due but does not include loans in the process of foreclosure.

The percentage of loans in the foreclosure process at the end of the first quarter was 2.22%, down five basis points from the fourth quarter of 2014 and 43 basis points lower than the same quarter one year ago. This was the lowest foreclosure inventory rate since the fourth quarter of 2007.

“The latest decline in the share of households suffering mortgage payment problems provides more evidence that the housing market is slowly normalizing,” said Ed Stansfield, chief property economist for Capital Economics. “To the extent that it encourages lenders to ease credit conditions and make more loans, it’s also positive news for mortgage market activity.”
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The serious delinquency rate, the percentage of loans that are 90 days or more past due or in the process of foreclosure, was 4.24%, a decrease of 28 basis points from the previous quarter, and a decrease of 80 basis points from the first quarter of 2014.

“Delinquency rates and the percentage of loans in foreclosure continued to fall in the first quarter and are now at their lowest levels since 2007,” said Joel Kan, MBA’s Associate Vice President of Industry Surveys and Forecasting. “The job market continues to grow, and this is the most important fundamental improving mortgage performance. Additionally, home prices continued to rise, as did the pace of sales, thus increasing equity levels and enabling struggling borrowers to sell if needed.”
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At the state level, 27 states saw a decline in foreclosure inventory rates over the quarter. New Jersey, New York, and Florida had the highest percent of loans in foreclosure in the nation in the first quarter. Florida’s foreclosure inventory rate peaked at 14.5% in 2010, and was down to 4.8% in the most recent quarter, helped by rapidly improving local economies and job markets, leading to increased housing demand, strong home price growth, and more opportunities for distressed loans to be resolved.

On the other hand, New Jersey’s percentage of loans in foreclosure peaked at 9% in 2013, and even though the rate has decreased in recent quarters to 7.7%, improvement has been slow relative to other states due to New Jersey’s long foreclosure timelines and a less robust housing market. Foreclosure starts increased in 26 states, but this measure has become more volatile with state-level mediation requirements and changing servicing procedures dictating changes from quarter to quarter.

Posted in Foreclosures, Mortgages, New Jersey Real Estate | 67 Comments

NJ houses to get more expensive

Posted on May 6, 2015 by grim

From the Star Ledger:

All new houses would be required to have sprinklers, under bill on Christie’s desk

The deadline for Gov. Chris Christie to sign or veto legislation that would require every new single or two-family home built in New Jersey to have a sprinkler system is Thursday.

Today, a coalition of fire safety officials and union heads joined the bill’s sponsor, Assemblyman John Wisniewski, to urge Christie to sign it.

“Of all the reasons to support this bill, the most compelling is also the simplest: Fire sprinklers prevent injuries and save lives,” Wisniewski (D-Middlesex) said.

The bill (A1698) passed the Legislature in March nearly along party lines, with most Democrats supporting it and most Republicans opposing it. It passed once before in January 2014, at the end of the last two-year legislative session. But it died when Christie failed to take action on it before the session expired in what’s called a “pocket veto.”

Wisniewski said the requirement would add about $4,000 to the cost of a 2,000 square foot home.

“I think about that number. A $4,000 investment on a structure that usually runs about $400,000. It’s a small fraction of the overall cost,” he said, adding that many insurance companies will offer discounts for homes with sprinklers.
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Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick (R-Union) said most Republicans opposed the bill because it would add to the cost of housing.

“In New Jersey, where things are so expensive, we don’t want to mandate another cost that will be passed down to the buyer,” he said. “We were concerned about more mandates, more costs and consequently more regulations with respect to families buying homes.”

Posted in New Development, New Jersey Real Estate | 54 Comments

Negative Equity at the Top? Not in NJ.

Posted on May 5, 2015 by grim

Sorry folks, finally we have the data to show it. Negative equity simply isn’t prevalent at the top-end of the market. From Black Knight:

Black Knight Mortgage Monitor – March 2015 Report

Low-end homes in the New York-New Jersey CBSA are 30X more likely to be underwater than high-end homes

Posted in Demographics, Economics, Housing Recovery, New Jersey Real Estate | 112 Comments

Next bubble already?

Posted on May 4, 2015 by grim

From HousingWire:

Home price and wage divergence raise alarms

Elsewhere and throughout most markets, home prices and rents keep rising, but sharply declining homeownership means fewer households are benefitting and more and more households are being priced out of homeownership and forced to pay higher rents, a client note from Bank of America/Merrill Lynch says.

Similarly, home prices are up by 25% from the bottom in December 2011, while personal income has only grown by 12.8%, roughly half the level of home price growth. In the past (think housing bubble/crisis), large divergences between home price growth and income growth had disastrous consequences.

Analysts are aware but not panicking.

“At the moment, disaster is not likely looming, but the divergence is at least cause for concern, particularly for the Fed, who has pursued an asset/real estate inflation policy for the past six years. The divergences noted above – between home prices and homeownership and between home price growth and income growth – highlight the transmission challenges faced by the Fed, and why hiking rates may be necessary, if somewhat hard to justify,” says Chris Flanagan at BAML. “The Fed may feel compelled to rein in home price inflation but, at the same time, acknowledge 1Q GDP was a bust for more than just transitory reasons and take note, at least tacitly, that the economic surprise index is hovering at the lowest levels since mid-2012, just before QE3 was rolled out.”

Posted in Demographics, Economics, Employment, Housing Recovery | 60 Comments

Inventory on the horizon? Maybe not.

Posted on May 2, 2015 by grim

From DS News:

Economist: Declining Shadow Inventory Will Not Help Country’s Short Housing Supply

A consistent and steady decline in shadow inventory, which is the number of residential properties that are in foreclosure but not being sold because the owner is waiting for price appreciation, has been a broad trend nationwide, according to National Association of Realtors (NAR) Chief Economist and SVP Lawrence Yun.
…
“With new home construction still sluggish the housing inventory shortage could last longer,” Yun said. “Home price increases in many parts of the country are nearly assured as a result. The price gains in some cases will be too fast and not good for the overall health of the local real estate market.”

The percentage of all mortgages comprised of shadow inventory has fallen from 10 percent a few years ago at the height of the crisis down to 4.5 percent, which is essentially back to normal when put in terms of foreclosure starts (46 percent) according to Yun. The thin shadow inventory compared with rising home values has caused the share of distressed home sales to drop to single digits. Since there will be fewer properties sold at deep discounts, this will cause home prices to strengthen, Yun said.

“It also means that those practitioners who specialize in foreclosures or short-sales need to start thinking about a change in business models to normal home buyers and normal positive-equity home sellers,” Yun wrote on the blog.

Since real estate is local, there are outliers to the general nationwide trend of shadow inventory decline. Shadow inventory remains high in some places such as New York and New Jersey, Yun said, and home prices will rise slowly in these areas. But since shadow inventory doesn’t figure to convert into visible inventory in the foreseeable future, what needs to happen to solve the short housing supply problem?

“Investor-owned properties through a flip could show up on the market,” Yun said. “However, most institutional investors who bought a few years ago are indicating a long-term hold to get rent gains which have been nice and profitable. The only true source of more supply is from homebuilders. Unfortunately, they are still not ramping up production to meet the market needs. Consequently, home price gains this year could be too fast for the country, easily rising double or triple the rate of income growth.”

Posted in Economics, Housing Recovery, National Real Estate | 15 Comments

Most expensive dirt in the country

Posted on April 30, 2015 by grim

From the Star Ledger:

Look down, N.J., the land you live on is the most valuable in America, study finds

New Jersey’s land is worth more per acre than any other state, according to a report, and the state’s overall land value ranks among the top in the nation.

The value of an acre of land in New Jersey, excluding buildings or other structures, clocks in at $196,410, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of a new federal study. Only three other states — Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts — have land worth more than $100,000 per acre, according to the report.

The report shows the top five states for land value per acre are:

New Jersey: $196,410
Rhode Island: $133,730
Connecticut: $128,820
Massachusetts: $102,210
Maryland: $75,430

The report was based on findings from a paper released earlier this month by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. The paper notes that New Jersey and Rhode Island are the two most developed states, with roughly 31 percent of land developed in both states.

The paper estimated land values for the contiguous 48 states and the District of Columbia and found the 1.89 billion acres of land that make up that territory are worth about $23 trillion.
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The more than 4.7 million acres of land in New Jersey is worth $930 billion, according to the paper. Just four other states had greater land value overall, the paper shows. Those states are: California, Texas, New York and Florida.

Posted in Economics, New Jersey Real Estate | 133 Comments

Shut up and pay me…

Posted on April 29, 2015 by grim

From the Star Ledger:

7 of the 10 counties in America with the highest property taxes are in N.J., study says

It’s no secret that New Jersey homeowners are hit with some of the highest property taxes in the nation. But just how high, relative to other parts of the country, might be a bit of a shock.

A typical homeowner in Bibb County, Ala., paid just $228 in property taxes in 2013, according to an analysis by Zillow, the real estate website. Compare that to someone paying the median in Paramus or Ridgewood in Bergen, who shelled out $9,546 — about 45 times as much.

Bergen and Bibb lie on opposite ends of a list of median property tax rates nationally. Bergen was third-highest in the country, and the highest in New Jersey, while Bibb joined several other Alabama counties boasting some of the very lowest property tax bills for single-family homes.

Bergen, meanwhile, is one of several New York City-area counties dominating the top 10. Those counties had annual property taxes several times the 2013 national median of $2,132, based on the Zillow analysis, which examined counties in the 50 largest metro areas for which sufficient data was available.

Elsewhere in New Jersey, however, property tax bills, while nowhere near the lowest in the country, were somewhat closer to the national median, according to figures compiled by NJ Advance Media in February (NJ Advance Media looked at average county bills, not the median figure used by Zillow). The average bill in Cumberland in 2013, for instance, was just a little over $3,700 a year, while in nearby Salem, the average was about $4,800.
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Highest:

Westchester, N.Y., $13,842
Rockland, N.Y., $10,550
Bergen, NJ, $9,546
Essex, N.J., $9,288
Nassau, N.Y., $9,091
Passaic, N.J., $8,978
Union, N.J., $8,926
Morris, N.J., $8,549
Hudson, N.J., $8,407
Hunterdon, N.J., $8,392

Posted in New Jersey Real Estate, Politics, Property Taxes | 76 Comments

March Case Shiller

Posted on April 28, 2015 by grim

From the WSJ:

Case-Shiller Home Price Index Climbs Modestly in February

Home prices continued to rise modestly in February, according to a report released on Tuesday, a continued upward push in home values which underscores concerns that buyers’ incomes aren’t keeping pace.

The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index, covering the entire nation, rose 4.2% in the 12 months ended in February, weaker than a 4.4% increase in January.

The housing market has been gaining strength in recent months, but some economists fear the improvement is fragile because wages haven’t kept pace with price increases.

“Home prices continue to rise and outpace both inflation and wage gains,” said David Blitzer, managing director and chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices.

Still, Mr. Blitzer cautioned that only two markets—Denver and Dallas—have surpassed their prerecession housing boom peaks. “If a complete recovery means new highs all around, we’re not there yet,” he said.

Both the 10-city and 20-city indexes saw larger year-over-year increases in February than in January. The 10-city index gained 4.8% from a year earlier, up from 4.3% in January. The 20-city index gained 5% year-over-year, compared with a 4.5% increase in January.

Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal expected a 4.8% increase in the 20-city index.

Posted in Economics, Housing Recovery, National Real Estate | 115 Comments

What would have been worse – stalling or foreclosing?

Posted on April 27, 2015 by grim

From the Philly Inquirer:

New Jersey still caught in foreclosure nightmare

The foreclosure nightmare that haunted U.S. homeowners during and after the Great Recession has loosened its grip considerably in most states.

In New Jersey, the bad dream just gets scarier.

Foreclosures there are 17 percent higher than they were in 2014, and bank repossessions of homes are up 18 percent, the housing-analytics firm RealtyTrac reported last week – even as the rest of the country logged the lowest foreclosure numbers in eight years.

One in every 234 homes in the state with a mortgage is in some stage of the foreclosure process – the fifth-highest rate in the nation.

New Jersey “should really be compared to where everyone else was two years ago,” said William Hall, manager of housing programs at the nonprofit credit-counseling agency Clarifi, which has an office in Cherry Hill and offered advice to 769 South Jersey homeowners in 2014.

In the first three months of this year, RealtyTrac reports, 14,524 houses were in the foreclosure pipeline in Burlington, Camden, and Gloucester Counties alone. The data show that 4,535 of those properties were vacant – “zombies” abandoned by their owners on lenders’ orders but for which the foreclosure process was never completed.

Philadelphia and its four suburban Pennsylvania counties have four times the number of homes as the three South Jersey counties but had just 12,046 foreclosures in the first quarter, RealtyTrac reports.

In the Sicklerville zip code, 08081, which spans Winslow and Gloucester Townships, RealtyTrac data show 1,088 houses are in foreclosure – more than in any other zip code in those three South Jersey counties.

Foreclosure numbers in greater Atlantic City rose 46 percent in the first quarter over the same period in 2014, meanwhile, giving it the highest foreclosure rate of any U.S. metro area over 200,000 population – one in every 113 houses.
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New Jersey’s foreclosure issues push chances for a complete housing-market turnaround further out of reach, industry observers say.

“In my view, the aftermath of the crisis is still with us,” said Bruce M. Sattin, a lawyer with Szaferman, Lakind, Blumstein & Blader in Lawrenceville who represents clients fighting foreclosure.

“While the number of new foreclosure cases spiked after the real estate market crashed in late 2007, there are still cases from back then in the system,” Sattin said.

How did New Jersey end up in such a mess?
…
New Jersey’s continued high foreclosure volume has created problems for neighbors who are up to date with their mortgages but who find out their houses are worth less than they owe, Busler said.

About 50 percent of Clarifi’s clients said they, too, were “underwater,” Hall said, and those borrowers are more likely to default.

Add job losses and lower wages to the mix, Busler said, and “all of this means that recovery in real estate will be very slow.”

Posted in Economics, Foreclosures, Housing Recovery, New Jersey Real Estate | 41 Comments

Embrace the Millennial

Posted on April 25, 2015 by grim

Great read from the APP:

Why New Jersey needs millennials

Conversation and laughter blend with the beat of the music permeating the stylish bar that is intimately lit with votive candles and glass fixtures.

Jennifer Keleman, 28, and her fiancee, nestled together on an oversized sofa, clink their wine glasses. It’s her birthday and they are celebrating at one of their favorite Asbury Park hot spots. Even if the celebration includes multiple glasses of wine, they’re only a short walk from their oceanfront apartment. No driving involved.

“In Asbury Park I feel that I can walk to bars and restaurants. I can go to the beach in the same day. I can go back to my apartment for lunch to walk my dog,” Keleman said. ” I can do that all without having to necessarily get in my car and drive somewhere and that’s really appealing to me.”

The urban landscape offered in towns like Asbury Park and Jersey City make them more attractive to millennials, aka Generation Y. But the rest of New Jersey is unappealing to them.

There’s a lot at stake for the Garden State. The generation has 75 million people, and they aren’t drawn to the landscape of malls and homes that suited WWII and Boomer families migrating from inner cities to safe, quiet suburbs.

Millennials amassed billions in student loan debt due to the sky rocketing cost of college tuition. The scarcity of high paying jobs makes it difficult to pay down the debt faster. Four of 10 millennials in New Jersey are in such dire straits that they live in their childhood home, U.S. Census data shows.

“They’ve delayed being launched,” said Cliff Zukin, a Rutgers University professor who has studied generational changes on American society. “They’re going to delay marriage, having jobs, kids, buying houses.”

The combination of problems is causing New Jersey millennials to migrate out of state, a Rutgers University study found.

With fewer members of Generation Y in New Jersey, there will be fewer people to buy houses, pay taxes, start families and spend money.

Posted in Demographics, Economics, Employment, New Jersey Real Estate | 33 Comments

Makes too much sense, what am I missing?

Posted on April 24, 2015 by grim

From Housingwire:

Radian now offering an industry first – job loss insurance

Radian Guaranty, the mortgage insurance subsidiary of Radian Group (RDN), is offering a new program that’s the first of its kind in the industry – job loss insurance.

Radian’s new program, called Radian MortgageAssure, will pay a borrower’s mortgage if they suffer an involuntary job loss and fall behind on their mortgage payments. Plus the program will be automatically provided to certain borrowers with no additional cost to the borrower.

According to Radian, the program is designed to “provide homeowners peace of mind” after an involuntary job loss. Radian notes that the program has dual benefits, for both the borrower and the lender, because the program reduces the risk of job loss-related late or missed mortgage payments, while offering lenders further protection against default.

Radian said that its new MortgageAssure program is the only program of its kind currently offered by a mortgage insurer and will be offered exclusively to Radian’s lending partners.

Under the program, if a participating homeowner falls behind on their mortgage payments due to an involuntary job loss and meets the conditions of the program, Radian MortgageAssure will provide up to six monthly mortgage payments, with a maximum monthly benefit of up to $1,500, or total protection of $9,000 during the two-year coverage period.

“At Radian, we are continually innovating to help Americans realize the dream of affordable, sustainable homeownership,” said Brien McMahon, chief franchise officer, Radian. “As the spring buying season begins, we are pleased to be able to offer a new level of protection – at no additional cost – that is designed to provide peace of mind to those interested in purchasing a home.”

Posted in Economics, Employment, Mortgages | 98 Comments

March Sales Hit 18 Month High

Posted on April 23, 2015 by grim

From the Record:

Jobs recovery boosts demand for homes

Fueled by a stronger job market, housing sales activity is picking up steam, with existing home sales up 6.1 percent nationwide in March, the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday.

A separate report, from the Federal Housing Finance Agency, said that home prices nationwide were also on the rise — up 5.4 percent in the 12 months ending in February. But prices were up only 2.6 percent in the Middle Atlantic region, which includes New Jersey.

That story was reflected in Bergen and Passaic counties, which saw little price improvement but an increase in sales activity.

“After a quiet start to the year, sales activity picked up greatly throughout the country in March,” said NAR economist Lawrence Yun. “The combination of low interest rates and the ongoing stability in the job market is improving buyer confidence and finally releasing some of the sizable pent-up demand that accumulated in recent years.”

Existing-home sales nationwide in March were at an annual level of 5.19 million.

“As we continue to see improvement and strengthening in the labor market, we’re seeing better household formation numbers,” said Anika Khan, an economist with Wells Fargo Securities in Charlotte, N.C. “Jobs are the key to housing demand.”

In March, the unemployment rate was 5.5 percent nationally, and 6.5 percent in New Jersey.

In Bergen County, the number of single-family home sales rose 12.6 percent in March compared to a year earlier. Single-family sales were up 22 percent in Passaic, though town house and condo sales dropped in both counties, according to the New Jersey Realtors.

But home values were up only slightly in the region, compared to March 2014. Single-family prices ticked up 1.7 percent in Bergen in March, to a median $437,500, and were flat in Passaic, at a median $285,000.

“Sales seem to be definitely on the rise, especially in the $500,000 range,” said Robert Funabishi, an agent with Terrie O’Connor Realtors in Saddle River. “My listing in Park Ridge had 30 showings in four days and [the owners] took an offer above the asking price. There’s a lot of pent-up demand out there from 2014, so it appears that anything that’s priced well and is clean is getting a lot of attention.”

Beth Freed, an agent with Prominent Properties Sotheby’s International Realty in Ridgewood, said the inventory of homes for sale remains tight.

“It would be really great if more homeowners decided to come on the market,” she said. “There are plenty of buyers out there.”

Posted in Economics, Housing Recovery, National Real Estate, New Jersey Real Estate | 85 Comments

Foreclosure starts spike in February?

Posted on April 22, 2015 by grim

From HousingWire:

Black Knight: March foreclosure starts skyrocket 18% from February

The March delinquency rate dropped 12% month-over-month, the largest monthly decline in nine years, but at the same time foreclosure starts skyrocketed 18% in March, according to the Black Knight Financial Services report for March.

Foreclosure starts were up 18% from February. Approximately 94,100 foreclosures were started in March, a roughly 7% increase from last year.

March didn’t see quite as many foreclosure starts as there were in January when there were 94,400, but it was the second highest number of starts since the end of 2013, which was 105,000.

The foreclosure rate continues its long-term trend of improvement, down over 27% from this time last year.

The drop in the monthly delinquencies helped to drive delinquencies below 5% for the first time since August 2007.

Posted in Foreclosures, Housing Recovery, National Real Estate | 82 Comments

It won’t ever sell…

Posted on April 21, 2015 by grim

From the Star Ledger:

Bank foreclosing on Joe, Teresa Giudice’s Montville mansion

The same day the new real estate agent for “Real Housewives of New Jersey” star Teresa Giudice vowed to aggressively market their enormous Montville Township mansion, the bank that holds their mortgage started foreclosure proceedings against the couple.

Community Bank of Bergen County filed a notice of foreclosure in Morris County Superior Court Wednesday on their Indian Lane property, according to court papers obtained by NJ Advance Media. The couple had returned to the mansion to the market this week with a $2.99 million listing price.

Community Bank was listed as one of the couple’s creditors in its 2010 bankruptcy filing, with a $1.7 million claim on the property. The couple eventually abandoned their bankruptcy claim after the trustee representing their creditors alleged they hid assets and income, which led to a federal prosecution that netted Teresa 15 months in prison (she’s expected to be out in February 2016) and Joe 41 months. The trustee closed out the bankruptcy proceedings last year after only collecting $7,500; the end of the proceedings gave banks and other credits free reign to seek repayment.

The couple also had two other properties on the market since last year: a vacation home in Manahawkin and a modest three-bedroom home they rented out in Lincoln Park. But they pulled those homes off the market earlier this month. According to Zillow.com, the two homes are in pre-foreclosure, although there has been no notice of foreclosure for the Manahawkin home filed with Ocean County Superior Court. In May 2014, a mortgage holder on the Lincoln Park property filed a notice in Morris County Superior Court, but no further action has been taken.

Posted in Foreclosures, New Jersey Real Estate | 106 Comments