Riding the Real Estate Roller Coaster
Posted: Monday, November 09, 2009
by Jeff Adams
RealEstateWebProfits.com
Since the economy has been on a downward spiral over the past few years, the real estate market has been saturated with bank owned homes and properties (REOs) and foreclosures. Many people may be under the impression that all of the good deals have been taken. This is really not the case. There are still deals to be made in REOs and foreclosures. It is definitely a buyers' market right now and investors need to actively take part in it.
The number of delinquent borrowers and distressed homeowners is also continuing to grow. More and more homeowners are walking away voluntarily from their mortgage obligations. Is seems as if they want to get out of their homes more than the lenders do. For this reason, the number of REOs on the market that are readily available is continuing to skyrocket. Add to this the statistics on that have shown that when home prices decline 10% below mortgage balances, there is a direct correlation to homeowners opting to give up their homes.
There is a fear of being subjected to "negative equity" so distressed homeowners would rather get rid of their homes than be forced to have their financial situation suffer even more. This is especially true when this sense of negative equity nears 50% or greater, as studies have shown that about 17% of households default on their loans, even if they still may have the ability to manage to afford their monthly loan payments.
RealtyTrac spokesperson stated that the number of filings for foreclosures during the past three months has been the worst of all time. This is good news to investors who are hungry and looking to invest in these distressed properties. Statistics show that over 937,840 homes received either default notices, auction notices, or bank repossession letters during that time. This means that one in every 136 homes were in one state of foreclosure or another. This is a 5% increase during the third quarter of 2009 when compared to the second quarter. In addition, this increase was a staggering 23 % one when compared to the third quarter of 2008.
There has been a slight relief in foreclosure filings in September 2009. Numbers show that there have been about 343,638 filings recorded. This is about a 4% decrease from the number of filings recorded in October 2009. Total accounts for 87,821 homes being repossessed by lenders have been reported.
Despite the slight decrease of homes that have fell victim to the foreclosure process, experts believe that there is no near end in sight. Foreclosures are one of the fastest growing areas of real estate at the moment and more and more investors are cashing in on the multitude of deals that are currently on the market. In regards to the various stages of foreclosure, the fastest growing area of foreclosure is the 180 days late plus category.
Foreclosures are not disappearing anytime soon. They continue to be a lingering problem for many distressed homeowners. Lender and government actions have also contributed to delays in filing for foreclosure. This crisis will be among us for a while. Many believe that home prices will not be getting better until 2013 and that recovery to this economic crisis will be slow and gradual.
All of the pieces to the puzzle are there. Homes are at an all time low in regards to there selling prices, interest rates are low, foreclosures on the market are at an all time high, and banks and lenders have so many REOs in their possession that they cannot get rid of fast enough. Investing in real estate now is a no brainer. There is a major profit to be made for savvy investors that decide to actually ride this real estate roller coaster that we are all on.
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