CNNMoney reported March 15, 2010 that mortgage delinquencies are at historic highs, despite the happy talk about a recovering housing market and “green shoots” in the economy. Lisa Gibbs, senior writer at Money Magazine, reported the following:
“Delinquency rates have hit historic highs. More than 7.4 million home loans nationwide are in some stage of delinquency or foreclosure, with another 1 million properties either bank-owned or sold out of foreclosure. An incredible 10% of all U.S. loans are delinquent. The worst hit areas are “Florida, Nevada, Arizona, California, plus the economically savaged areas of Michigan and Ohio.”
Did you catch that? A full 10% of U.S. loans are currently delinquent – and with unemployment likely to get worse before it gets better, this number will probably increase. Gibbs describes the consequences of these historically high delinquency rates:
“The sheer number of bad loans surely means more foreclosures, which means more houses on the market being sold at bargain-basement prices. And that means we’ll watch our property values continue going down, down, down.”
And the fact that mortgage interest rates are already at historic lows means they can only go up from here, which will further pressure home prices in areas with high home values. Homes are still pretty expensive in many areas of Southern California, and more bad loans, more foreclosures, and higher rates suggest that home values will fall further in the near future.
If you are currently facing foreclosure, don’t just allow it to happen! You have better options that can help you protect your credit. Contact us today!
-CH
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Tags: Economy, Foreclosure, Sell a House, Short Sale, Unemployment
