Monday, September 17, 2012

US Foreclosures – A Step to Invigorate the Property Market


Initial phases of US foreclosures have increased by six percent in the second quarter when compared to statistics from the previous year. Ever since the housing bust of 2006, the bank repossessed millions of homes because property owners were no longer able to afford their mortgage payments. This is the product of the whole sub-prime mess when people with little or no ability to maintain a mortgage were immediately granted home loans.

Boon or Bane for the Market

It depends on what your views are regarding the entire foreclosure process. Of course, during the preliminary phase, the sight of foreclosed signs in US neighborhoods signified that the economy was in a state of depression. It did not help very much that when compared with the Great Depression of 1929, more people today were in worse conditions than they were back then. On the other hand, clearing the back log of available properties is helpful for the housing market on the long term because it can act as a catalyst to speed up the recovery of the US real estate market.

The first phase of the foreclosure process increased by 6% compared from last year. This is the first time since 2009 that an increase of this nature was noted. This can be explained by the fact that most banks during that period found alternative means to dispose of the properties before the final phase of home seizures commenced. These methods included partnering up with the affected homeowner for a short sale wherein properties were sold off for less than what was left on their mortgage.

Current Market Conditions

Based on available data, the US real estate market is now able to withstand some of the pressures that come from weak economic indicators. The only factor that has been restraining the market rebound is the aptly named shadow inventory of properties that have mortgages which are 90 days overdue. While foreclosures that stopped in 2010 due to abuse by banks in the robosigning scandal of falsified paperwork, the settlement amounting to $25 billion is helping provide a boost for the market to move in the right direction.

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