HARP 3 not quite dead yet

Posted on February 6, 2014 by grim

From HousingWire:

Find out who wants to force HARP 3.0

A homeowner advocacy group wants to make HARP 3.0 happen, and they’ve launched a petition to do just that.

The group, makeharp3happen.com, launched a new “We the People” Whitehouse.gov petition calling for the administration to install a HARP 3.0 Count Up Clock in The White House Entrance Hall. The petition can be viewed here.

Their goal, they say, is to remind the President, Congress, and other policy makers of their failure to expand the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP).

HARP was first introduced in 2009 in response to the financial banking crisis. It was designed to allow refinance opportunities for some underwater homeowners.

In 2011 changes were made to expand the program resulting in HARP 2.0.

To date nearly 3 million homeowners have refinanced using HARP, but more than 12 million homeowners still owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth.

The President began a push for expanding HARP further during the 2012 State of The Union Address but it died on the vine. Obama returned to that push in the 2013 address, saying, “Too many families who have never missed a payment and want to refinance are being told no. That’s holding our entire economy back, and we need to fix it. Right now, there’s a bill in this Congress that would give every responsible homeowner in America the chance to save $3,000 a year by refinancing at today’s rates.”

Posted in Housing Recovery, Mortgages, Politics | 55 Comments

Homeownership vs Headship

Posted on February 5, 2014 by grim

From the Atlantic:

Why We Shouldn’t Obsess Over the Falling Homeownership Rate

In the midst of the recession, millions of Americans began to “double up,” in the language of demographers: Parents moved in with their children, recent college graduates returned home with their parents, unrelated families combined households, while single adults who might otherwise have lived on their own found a room to rent instead.

We seldom describe these people this way, but they essentially dropped out of the housing market, in precisely the same way that would-be workers who give up on finding a job “drop out” of the labor pool.

Now, six years after the recession began, many of these people have yet to re-emerge – to move out of the basement or the spare bedroom, to form their own households. And as Jed Kolko, chief economist at Trulia, pointed out in The New York Times last week, this “doubled up” population points to a key flaw in how we think about America’s homeownership rate.

That figure has been declining since about 2005, and on Friday the Census Bureau confirmed that it was still languishing. At the end of 2013, the homeownership rate was 65.2 percent, down slightly from where it had been a year earlier and still down substantially from the all-time high.
…
“You would never guess from the falling homeownership rate that there’s right now a big boom in apartment rental construction, but there is,” Kolko says by phone. “At the extreme, if all that were happening right now in the housing market were young people moving out of their parents’ homes into rentals, that would clearly be good for the economy. That would stimulate a lot of apartment building construction. And there would be no change in the number of homeowners.”

In fact, the homeownership rate might actually go down as a result.
…
Declining unemployment can be deceptive, as can declining homeownership. We don’t typically bring this same skepticism, though, to homeownership statistics. But, as Kolko points out, there is a way to do this. We can look at a more obscure statistic called the “headship rate,” which reflects the share of all people who head a household. As more people double up, the headship rate goes down. As more twenty-somethings move out of their parents’ homes and into their own one-bedrooms and studios, the headship rate will go up.

If you work in the housing construction industry, this is the number you care about. When the headship rate goes up, that stimulates demand for new housing. And that can happen even as the homeownership rate goes down.

The government doesn’t currently produce a single, official headship statistic in the same way it does with labor force participation (the number looks a little different depending on which Census data you rely on to produce it). But the government probably should, because this one data point has value for two big reasons: It gives us a fuller picture of what’s going on with homeowners. And it tells us something about the health of the housing market without implying that everyone should aspire to own a home.

If you’re agnostic on this point – if you think we should stop behaving in America as if homeownership were the ultimate sign of personal financial responsibility – then the headship rate recognizes that renters are a crucial part of the picture, too. A housing recovery will be good for the economy. But that’s not because more people will own homes; it’s because we’ll need to build more homes, regardless of whether the people living inside own them or not.

Posted in Demographics, Economics, Housing Recovery, New Development | 67 Comments

Clear Capital: Return to peak in 2021

Posted on February 3, 2014 by grim

From HousingWire:

Home prices won’t return to peak levels until when?

Home prices are growing slowly but remain in line with inflation, Clear Capital reported Monday morning in its Home Data Index, but at this pace it will be 2021 before they return to peak prices.

National home prices are right in line — within 2% — with inflation adjusted long-run average levels, which Clear Capital says shows prices have normalized post-bubble and future rates of growth will look more like historical rates of growth. Home prices have typically gained between 3% and 5% a year.

At the current quarterly rate of national growth, peak prices won’t be reached until the year 2021.

“With the majority of metro markets still so far below peak prices, it’s time for conversations surrounding price trends to shift away from the 2006 peak as the point of reference, and back to current trends and forecasts,” said Dr. Alex Villacorta, vice president of research and analytics at Clear Capital. “While there are certainly investors and homeowners holding real estate assets that will be underwater for seven years or more, the current housing market is positioned to behave very similar or even below historical norms, given the current economic climate.”
…
He added that Clear Capital sees a steady growth pattern, and no bubbles in housing.

“Nationally, we don’t see evidence of a price bubble forming again. Double digit gains over the last year, while similar to rates of growth in the run-up to the bubble, are off a much lower price floor. Phoenix and Las Vegas, however, are showing signs of overheating,” he said.

Posted in Economics, Housing Recovery, National Real Estate | 142 Comments

A peek at South Jersey real estate

Posted on February 2, 2014 by grim

From the Press of Atlantic City:

Home sales on rise, but prices falling across South Jersey

Across a diverse South Jersey real estate market, some noticeable trends emerged in 2013, according to an analysis by The Press of Atlantic City of data compiled by the New Jersey Association of Realtors:
n Mainland Atlantic County towns experienced a spike in home sales last year, about a 16 percent increase from 2012, while sales in coastal municipalities dropped 11 percent. This includes single-family homes, condos and age-restricted communities.

A similar scene played out in Cape May County, where sales volume dropped 8 percent in seashore towns but fell only 4 percent inland.

In southern Ocean County, sales in Stafford and Little Egg Harbor townships rose a combined 48 percent. On Long Beach Island, however, overall sales dropped a combined 15 percent.

Meanwhile, median sales prices for single-family homes fell in Cape May, Cumberland and Ocean counties and were flat in Atlantic County. This counters the statewide trend, which saw the median home sell for $10,050 more than the year before.

A number of factors — increased sales of distressed properties, Hurricane Sandy-related issues, an improved national economy and a still floundering local one — played a role in real estate in 2013 and may shape the market this year.
…
Taken as a whole, the region trailed New Jersey and the U.S. in terms of home-sales growth and prices.

Some markets in Atlantic, Cape May and Cumberland counties showed more sales or higher prices than others.
…
Anthony D’Alicandro, owner of Coldwell Banker Casa Bella Realtors in Linwood, said 2013 showed a significant difference between coastal and mainland properties.

The aftermath from Sandy and uncertainty over flood elevation requirements seemed to slow coastal markets early in the year, he said.

“The coastal towns were in momentum. They were through the roof in 2012, from leading up to the fourth quarter of 2011 through 2012. Sandy obviously had a huge impact on that momentum and literally brought it to a stop. Not because we had total loss and destruction, but it was mainly having the comfort level with buyers,” D’Alicandro said.
Ocean City, for example, saw sales fall about 10 percent, Realtor data show.
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Sales were up 12 percent in Cumberland County overall, 10 percent in Vineland, 6 percent in Millville and 21 percent in Bridgeton, Realtor data show.
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The median single-family home in Atlantic County sold for $210,000 in 2013, the same as the prior year, Realtor data show. In Cape May County, the median home sold for $292,750, about a 3 percent dip.

In Cumberland County, the median price dropped about 4 percent — to $135,725. Ocean County’s median home price dropped about 5 percent, to $254,900.

All these figures trail the national and state averages.

In some respects, South Jersey real estate has to deal with a regional economy still struggling to add jobs lost during the recession and its aftermath.

Posted in Economics, Housing Recovery, New Jersey Real Estate | 32 Comments

NJ on the way to Number 1!

Posted on January 31, 2014 by grim

From the Star Ledger:

NJ may soon lead nation in foreclosures

New Jersey may lead the nation with the highest percentage of foreclosed homes by the summer.

“It’s just a matter of time,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic, an online analytic firm that released new data yesterday.

Since the housing market crash in September 2008, Florida has had the highest percentage of mortgaged homes in foreclosure, while New Jersey has ranked second.

At the start of 2013, 10.3 percent of the Sunshine State’s homes with a mortgage had completed the foreclosure process. In New Jersey, the figure was 7.2 percent.

But Florida has been moving through the process at a much faster rate than New Jersey, according to Fleming.

In the past 12 months, nearly 119,000 homes completed foreclosures in Florida as compared with 5,138 in the Garden State.

The percentages of foreclosed homes last month were 6.7 and 6.5 respectively.

“New Jersey may top the list within the next six months,” Fleming said.

Posted in Foreclosures, New Jersey Real Estate | 171 Comments

Foreclosure crisis eased in 2013

Posted on January 30, 2014 by grim

From National Mortgage Professional:

Foreclosure Inventory Drops by More Than 30 Percent Year-Over-Year in December

CoreLogic has released its December National Foreclosure Report, which provides data on completed U.S. foreclosures and the national foreclosure inventory. According to CoreLogic, there were 620,111 completed foreclosures across the country in 2013 compared to 820,498 in 2012, a decrease of 24 percent. For the month of December, there were 45,000 completed foreclosures, down from 52,000 in December 2012, a year-over-year decrease of 14 percent. On a month-over-month basis, completed foreclosures decreased 4.1 percent, from 47,000 reported in November 2013.

“The foreclosure inventory fell by more than 30 percent in December on a year-over-year basis, twice the decline from a year ago,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. “The decline indicates that the distressed foreclosure inventory is healing at an accelerating rate heading into 2014.”

Completed foreclosures are an indication of the total number of homes actually lost to foreclosure. Since the financial crisis began in September 2008, there have been approximately 4.8 million completed foreclosures across the country. As a basis of comparison, prior to the decline in the housing market in 2007, completed foreclosures averaged 21,000 per month nationwide between 2000 and 2006.

As of December 2013, approximately 837,000 homes in the United States were in some stage of foreclosure, known as the foreclosure inventory, compared to 1.2 million in December 2012, a year-over-year decrease of 31 percent. The foreclosure inventory as of December 2013 represented 2.1 percent of all homes with a mortgage compared to three percent in December 2012. The foreclosure inventory was down 2.7 percent from November 2013 to December 2013.

“Clearly, 2013 was a transitional year for residential property in the United States. Higher home prices and lower shadow inventory levels, together with a slowly improving economy, are hopeful signals that we are turning a long-awaited corner,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “The housing market should continue to heal in 2014, but we expect progress to remain very slow.”

Posted in Economics, Foreclosures, Housing Recovery, National Real Estate | 111 Comments

2013 – Good year for NJ real estate

Posted on January 29, 2014 by grim

From the Record:

N.J. home sales rose 18% in 2013, realtors say

The number of homes sold in New Jersey last year reached their highest levels since 2005, rising 18.1 percent to almost 95,000 units, the New Jersey Association of Realtors said Tuesday.

At the same time, home prices rose 3.1 percent to a median $283,500, the NJAR said.

NJAR says that Bergen County single-family prices rose 5.7 percent in December 2013, compared with a year earlier, to a median $460,000. Passaic County prices rose 4.9 percent, to a median $300,000, over the same period.

The NJAR’s numbers, which are based on reports from the state’s multiple listing services, show a recovering home market – a picture reinforced by a report Tuesday from the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index, which uses different methods to track home prices.

According to Case-Shiller, single-family home values in the New York metropolitan area, including North Jersey, rose by 6 percent in November, compared with a year earlier. While that reflected a renewed vitality in the real estate market, the rise was less than half the national increase of 13.7 percent.

Even with the recent rebound, single-family home prices, both nationally and in the region, are only at the levels of mid-2004 and remain about 20 percent below their peaks in mid-2006, according to Case-Shiller.

The region’s home prices are recovering more slowly than the nation as a whole in part because property values here didn’t drop as dramatically as in other areas. In addition, New Jersey’s job growth has been slow, and the state has a large backlog of distressed properties heading into the foreclosure pipeline.

Posted in Economics, Housing Recovery, New Jersey Real Estate | 75 Comments

Don’t blame Gen X or the Millennials

Posted on January 28, 2014 by grim

From HousingWire:

Think Millennials are stalling the housing market?

For years now, everyone has been blaming the Millennials for stalling the housing recovery because of their reluctance or inability to purchase a home, but it may be the cohort right before them – the generational cuspers, or those born from 1978 to 1982 – who started this trend. This age group now has the lowest homeownership rate in decades. They’re best defined as not quite Gen-X, not really Millennials, but stuck somewhere in between.

Real Estate Economy Watch recently reported on a study conducted by Chris Porter, a senior manager with John Burns Real Estate Consulting. Porter discovered that Americans within the 30-to-34 age range now have the lowest homeownership rate of any similarly aged group that came before them.

Back in 2012, this same group had a 47.9% homeownership rate, which is 6.5 percentage points lower than what those five years older had achieved at the same point.

Oddly enough, it seems this crowd bought homes at a faster clip when they were younger, only to get caught in the subprime crunch. The same study shows this group recorded the highest homeownership rate for those in the 25-to-29 age category back in 2007, before the market crash.

Posted in Demographics, Housing Recovery, National Real Estate | 89 Comments

Maplewood homeowner sees tax bill rise $9000 in error

Posted on January 27, 2014 by grim

From the Star Ledger:

Bamboozled: Property taxes soar after appraiser adds non-existent features to Maplewood home

Jerry Auriemma was born and bred in Maplewood.

In 1988, before he married, he bought a newly built home in town. The four-bedroom, 2.5 bath colonial cost $295,000, and had property taxes of about $11,000.

After his marriage, he and his wife Annette decided to raise their family in that same home.

Property taxes rose slowly over the years, and by 2010, the home was valued at $394,000 with property taxes of $18,365.

But that year, the town conducted a reassessment.

“Our house goes from a value of $394,00 to $784,000. Keep in mind, we are in the midst of the biggest financial collapse since the Depression, and my house doubles in value,” Auriemma said. “Our taxes went crazy.”

In three years, his property tax bill went up nearly $9,000 to $27,246 in 2013. That was a monthly increase of about $750.

And money was already tight.

“The town outgrew us financially, we thought, but we didn’t want to uproot our kids,” he said, so they struggled to stay in their home with a non-amortizing mortgage. Fees were expensive, but the loan lowered their monthly payments enough that they could stay put.

Such is life in New Jersey, one might think.

But it wasn’t just general rising prices that challenged the couple’s financial situation.

It was a mistake. A big mistake.

The appraiser hired by the town in 2010 added 660 square feet and an extra top-of-the-line bathroom with two sinks to the home. The Auriemmas had been priced out of their own home — on a mistake.

“I never caught on that something was wrong,” said Auriemma, 60, who lost his job a week after contacting Bamboozled. “Call it ignorance, but it’s now insanity”

Posted in New Jersey Real Estate, Property Taxes | 144 Comments

“The lack of inventory is a big obstacle for the housing market”

Posted on January 25, 2014 by grim

From Fox Business:

Will Inventory Kill Housing’s Recovery?

The housing market has been on a steady recovery, but there is one major obstacle that could potentially slow down its momentum: tight inventory.

“The lack of inventory is a big obstacle for the housing market right now,” says Jed Smith, managing director of quantitative research for the National Association of Realtors. “It becomes a supply and demand issue; without more homes available, home prices will continue to rise, which is bad news for home buyers.”

Smith expects home prices to rise 5% in 2014, which he calls “sustainable and reasonable,” but if they start to creep any higher, it will start pricing buyers out of the market and fuel speculation of another bubble.

On Thursday, the National Association of Realtors reported housing inventory fell 9.3% at the end of December, to 1.86 million available homes, which is about a 4.6 month supply at the current sales pace. According to Smith, a normal market has about a six-to-seven-month supply available.

Jed Kolko, chief economist at housing website Trulia, points out that the market experienced a shift in the type of sales last year. “We saw less distressed sales and more conventional sales last year, which means foreclosures and short sales are making up a smaller share of overall sales. Conventional sales were up 12% last year.”

While it’s expected that inventory levels drop in the winter, Kolko says that even when the numbers are seasonally adjusted, December’s inventory levels were still at a seven-month low. “This is tough news for buyers; they will have less to choose from as we head into the spring buying season.”

Posted in Economics, Housing Recovery, National Real Estate | 67 Comments

2013 Housing Market Closes Strong

Posted on January 24, 2014 by grim

From Bloomberg:

US home sales edged up 1 percent in December

Sales of existing U.S. homes edged up slightly in December, helping to lift sales for the year to the highest level in seven years.

Sales increased to an annual rate of 4.87 million units last month, up 1 percent from the November sales pace, the National Association of Realtors reported Thursday. Both months represented a slower pace of sales than earlier in 2013, reflecting the drag from higher mortgage rates and higher home prices.

For all of 2013, sales totaled 5.09 million, the best performance since 2006, when sales climbed to 6.48 million. However, the sales gains in both 2005 and 2006 represented an unsustainable housing bubble. Analysts say a more normal sales pace currently would be around 5.5 million units.

The median price of an existing home rose 11.5 percent last year to $197,100, the highest in eight years.

Sales of previously owned homes are up 19.5 percent since 2011 but sales fell from September through November and the December level is still 9.6 percent below the summer peak.

“We lost some momentum toward the end of 2013 from disappointing job growth and limited inventory, but we ended with a year that was close to normal given the size of our population,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the Realtors.
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Yun expects sales will remain around the 2013 level of 5.09 million in 2014 as such factors as tighter mortgage lending standards and limited inventories impede further progress in the housing market.

But other forecasters are more optimistic. Patrick Newport, an economist at Global Insight, predicted that sales growth would slow a bit from last year’s 8.8 percent rise. He predicted a 5.1 percent increase this year to 5.33 million. He said that would represent a “return to normalcy for this portion of the housing market.”

Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors, agreed. “The decade of boom, bust and boom in the housing market is nearing an end,” he said. “We should be getting back to a more normal market.”
…
By region of the country, sales fell 4.3 percent in the Midwest and were down 1.3 percent in the Northeast. Sales were up 3 percent in the South and rose 4.8 percent in the West.

Posted in Economics, Housing Recovery, National Real Estate | 75 Comments

Cash still king

Posted on January 23, 2014 by grim

From CNN/Money:

Buyers flocked to foreclosures last year — and many paid all cash

Bargain hunters scooped up more foreclosed homes in 2013 — and many of them paid all cash.

Sales of foreclosed and distressed homes made up 16.2% of all home sales last year, up from 14.5% in 2012, according to RealtyTrac. Overall, U.S. home sales were up 10% year-over-year.

And many deals were done in cold, hard cash. All-cash deals accounted for 29.1% of all home purchases last year, up significantly from 19.4% the year before, RealtyTrac said.

The surge in sales of distressed properties comes despite the fact that far fewer Americans lost their homes to foreclosure last year.

“It may surprise some to see distressed sales rising in 2013 given that foreclosure starts dropped to a seven-year low for the year,” said Daren Blomquist, spokesman for RealtyTrac. “[But] there are still more than 1.2 million properties in the foreclosure process or bank-owned, providing a sizable pool of inventory that the housing market is in the process of absorbing.”

Distressed properties are attractive to buyers because they tend to be significantly cheaper. The median home price of a foreclosed or bank-owned property was $108,500 in December compared with $174,400 for non-distressed properties.

Institutional investors, including hedge funds and private equity groups, were buying up homes of all types last year including foreclosures. During the year, 7.3% of all home sales were to investors, up from 5.1% the year before.

Posted in Foreclosures, National Real Estate | 77 Comments

Home sales to increase in 2014, but not by much

Posted on January 22, 2014 by grim

From HousingWire:

How can 2014 home sales outpace 2013?

Existing home sales stalled out at the end of 2013, but Paul Diggle, property economist at Capital Economics, says the decline in existing home sales will prove temporary.

Capital Economics notes the number of existing home sales fell 9.1% between August and November to 4.9 million annualized.

“That meant that, for the first time since mid-2011, existing home sales were running slightly below the level seen a year ago. What’s more, judging by the latest set of pending home sales figures, which tend to lead existing home sales by a month or two, existing home sales may have dropped to 4.8m annualized in December,” Diggle says.

“Given that existing home sales make up more than 90% of all home sales, a key question is whether the current slump will prove temporary or permanent.”

Diggle says the drop in existing home sales was triggered by the rise in mortgage interest rates over the mid-part of last year. Average 30-year mortgage interest rates rose from 3.7% in April to 4.7% in September and they have mostly remained in that territory.

“Alongside the rise in house prices, higher rates have reduced mortgage affordability and taken a toll on consumers’ confidence in the housing recovery,” Diggle says. “The share of respondents to Fannie Mae’s monthly housing survey who think that now is a good time to buy a home dropped from 76% in May to 64% in November, while the NAR’s index of buyer traffic declined from 72 to 53 between April and October.”

“The bottom line is that the improvement in housing market activity during 2014 will be considerably weaker than the improvement during 2013 – even taking account of the soft end to last year. But we do at least expect a further improvement in activity,” Diggle notes.

Posted in Economics, Housing Recovery, National Real Estate | 67 Comments

‘fellergate

Posted on January 21, 2014 by grim

From CNN:

Hot piece of land in Hoboken at center of Christie-Zimmer dispute

Most issues in Hoboken, New Jersey, ultimately boil down to real estate.

So it’s no surprise to the residents of the small city that the dustup between their mayor and Gov. Chris Christie’s administration centers around three square blocks in the north end of Hoboken.

With multimillion-dollar high-rise views of the New York City skyline, beautifully restored 19th century townhouses on quiet side streets, and trendy restaurants, bars and boutiques along the main drag, real estate is a prime commodity in the city that gave us Frank Sinatra and the reality television show “Cake Boss.”

The Rockefeller Group, a major real estate holding company in the United States, wants to add to that landscape with a mixed-use development. Among the proposed apartment buildings and commercial spaces is a 40-story tower. It would be the city’s tallest structure.
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Mayor Dawn Zimmer favors a plan that would divert water from the Hudson River into a new green belt around the city. The plans for that green belt skirt the Rockefeller Group’s coveted development site.

Zimmer said she isn’t opposed to developing those three blocks. But she has concerns about congestion and a strain on public services in the fourth most densely packed city in the United States.

“My No. 1 priority is to do what’s right for Hoboken,” Zimmer said CNN’s State of the Union with Candy Crowley. “We have severe needs and we have to look at this comprehensively.”

At the center of the controversy is Zimmer’s claim that two members of Christie’s administration made it clear to her that Sandy recovery funds distributed by his office would be contingent on her approval of the Rockefeller Group’s development project.
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The real estate company denied any knowledge of a quid pro quo relating to its project. A statement from the Rockefeller Group said: “We have no knowledge of any information pertaining to this allegation. If it turns out to be true, it would be deplorable.”

Posted in New Development, New Jersey Real Estate, Politics | 108 Comments

2013 Year End Foreclosure Report

Posted on January 18, 2014 by grim

From National Mortgage Professional:

Foreclosure Totals Down 26 Percent Year-Over-Year in 2013

RealtyTrac has released its Year-End 2013 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, which shows foreclosure filings—default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions—were reported on 1,361,795 U.S. properties in 2013, down 26 percent from 2012 and down 53 percent from the peak of 2.9 million properties with foreclosure filings in 2010. The 1.4 million total properties with foreclosure filings in 2013 was the lowest annual total since 2007, when there were 1.3 million properties with foreclosure filings.

The report also shows that 1.04 percent of U.S. housing units (one in every 96) had at least one foreclosure filing during the year, down from 1.39 percent of housing units in 2012 and down from a peak of 2.23 percent of housing units in 2010.

Other high-level findings from the report:

►States with the highest foreclosure rates in 2013 were Florida (3.01 percent of all housing units with a foreclosure filing), Nevada (2.16 percent), Illinois (1.89 percent), Maryland (1.57 percent), and Ohio (1.53 percent).

►Total foreclosure activity in 2013 increased in 10 states in 2013 compared to 2012, including Maryland (up 117 percent), New Jersey (up 44 percent), New York (up 34 percent), Connecticut (up 20 percent), Washington (up 13 percent), and Pennsylvania (up 13 percent).

►Scheduled judicial foreclosure auctions (NFS) increased 13 percent in 2013 compared to 2012 to the highest level since 2010. NFS were the only foreclosure document type among the five tracked by RealtyTrac to post an increase nationwide in 2013 compared to 2012.

►States with big increases in scheduled judicial foreclosure auctions included Maryland (up 107 percent), New Jersey (64 percent), Connecticut (up 55 percent), Florida (up 53 percent), Pennsylvania (up 24 percent), and New York (up 15 percent).

►The average estimated value of a property receiving a foreclosure filing in 2013 was $191,693 at the time of the foreclosure filing, up one percent from the average value in 2012, and the average estimated market value of properties that received foreclosure filings in 2013 has increased 10 percent since the foreclosure notice was filed.

►The average time to complete a foreclosure nationwide in the fourth quarter increased 3 percent from the previous quarter to a record-high 564 days. States with the longest time to foreclose were New York (1,029 days), New Jersey (999 days) and Florida (944 days).

►Including the 2013 numbers, over the past eight years 10.9 million U.S. properties have started the foreclosure process and 5.6 million have been repossessed by lenders through foreclosure.

“Millions of homeowners are still living in the shadow of the massive foreclosure crisis that the country experienced over the past eight years since the housing price bubble burst — both in the form of homes lost to directly to foreclosure as well as home equity lost as a result of a flood of discounted distressed sales,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. “But the shadow cast by the foreclosure crisis is shrinking as fewer distressed properties enter foreclosure and properties already in foreclosure are poised to exit in greater numbers in 2014 given the greater numbers of scheduled foreclosure auctions in 2013 in judicial states — which account for the bulk of U.S. foreclosure inventory.

Posted in Foreclosures, National Real Estate | 52 Comments