Powered by Twitter Tools

• So Much for the Lone-wolf Terrorist Driven by Foreclosure http://bit.ly/aD97jD #
• Organization helping homeless squat in foreclosed homes: http://bit.ly/c7Uk8X #
• FL and CA make up 5 of 13 housing markets that 'will never recover according to biz insider: http://bit.ly/aj1Cks #
• POLL: U.S. consumers are less interested in buying a foreclosed home than they were a year ago http://bit.ly/bWTzqJ #

Powered by Twitter Tools

• New blog post: Jumping Ship- How homeowners are walking away http://bit.ly/bUWfSb
• New blog post: Man Locks Himself in Foreclosed Home, Arrested http://foreclosureresearch.com/2010/05/locked-in-foreclosure
• 'Strategic defaulter' says it's the 'in-thing' to walk away from your mortgage. http://bit.ly/bAL3mM #
• New magazine re-design of our site. Check it out: http://foreclosureresearch.com/ #
• TAKE OUR POLL! Is voluntary foreclosure (or walking away) ok? http://bit.ly/bbmz5F #
• New blog post: Poll: Are Non-hardship Strategic Defaults OK? http://bit.ly/bCh9cu
  9:18 AM May 12th via Twitter Tools
• New blog post: Foreclosure Movie http://bit.ly/bUWfSb
  9:53 AM May 10th via Twitter Tools

Powered by Twitter Tools

According to a recent 60 Minutes episode an increasing amount of homeowners are ‘walking away’ from their homes and are headed down foreclosure alley- willingly. Apart from the more traditional foreclosure woes spurred by job loss, or illness these homeowners would rather foreclose due to underwater mortgages despite their ability to make payments.

In a separate Reuters article, underwater mortgages have increased from 21.4 percent in Q4 2009 to 23.3 percent in Q1 2010. In areas hard hit by foreclosure underwater homes account for more than 50% of all loans.

Interviewer Morley Safer of 60 Minutes states that rising negative equity in homes is a growing “epidemic.” Which begs the question: What good comes out of one epidemic compounded with the resulting epidemic of foreclosure? It becomes an even bigger crisis that could have been minimized by perhaps not considering the former an epidemic in the first place. But rather identified decreasing home values as just a low point in an ongoing real estate cycle.

Unfortunately it seems many prospective home-buyers were blinded by the boom, a real estate revelry if you will, and can’t take handle the hangover of the bust. They and forgot that real estate is in fact cyclic by nature. They also failed to note that at the very least real estate should always be viewed as a long-term investment.

Everybody is affected by foreclosure, owners and renters. If 50 percent of homeowners in a neighborhood decided to walk away, what becomes of that neighborhood? Vacant homes become magnets for criminal activity and depreciated values. If it doesn’t make it right for half a neighborhood, then it shouldn’t make it right for just one Underwater Joe to walk away.

Strategic defaulter Chris Deaner says he tried to renegotiate the payments on his $250,000 mortgage with no avail, yet the article does not cite what changed from being able to make the payments when they first approved the mortgage.

“They said they would take my home. I pretty much said: Go for it. It’s almost the ‘in thing’ to do now,” says Deaner.

For me, it doesn’t matter how you dress it up. A foreclosure remains a foreclosure even surrounded by water and a failure remains a failure whether it is fashionably strategic or not.

• Terror suspect Faisal Shahzad facing foreclosure on CT home. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36934331/ns/us_news-security/ #
• WSJ columnist implicates foreclosure as cause for terror suspects plot. http://bit.ly/bDShpX Really? #
• They have capped one of the three oil leaks in the gulf. Hooray! #
• Ohio man locks himself inside house to stave off foreclosure http://bit.ly/aACwZB #
• Ohio man who locked himself in his foreclosed house did not last long before the SWAT team busted him and his cronies out at 3:45am. #
• New movie coming out called 'Foreclosure' staring Soprano's Michael Imperioli and surprise.. it's a horror movie. http://bit.ly/c5nVO0 #

Powered by Twitter Tools

The latest foreclosure blame-game report may be a stretch though. A recent opinion column in the Wall Street Journal implicates foreclosure as one of the causes for the recent attempted terror plot in New York City’s Time Square.

Ezra Klein’s article titled, “The economic crisis meets terrorism” immediately sounded off an alarm. Klein quotes an article on MSNBC, which reported that terror suspect Faisal Shahzad defaulted on the mortgage on his Connecticut home. Later in the column, Klein speculates that foreclosure may have been an underlying factor in his motives to blow up the black SUV in Times Square.

Here is a snippet of his column:

“The hearts of men are opaque, and motives are complex. But it’s a reminder that foreclosures generate an enormous amount of misery and anxiety and depression that can tip people into all sorts of dangerous behaviors that don’t make headlines but do ruin lives. And for all that we’ve done to save the financial sector, we’ve not done nearly enough to help struggling homeowners.”

Unfortunately Americans and other Western societies are all too familiar with terrorism, which came to a culmination during the World Trade Center attacks. Of all the reasons that may influence someone to perform an act of terrorism, I can say quite confidently that foreclosure is not one of them.

Perhaps one of the more obvious reasons Shahzah fell into foreclosure was his ultimate goal to leave the U.S., as he was found aboard a plain headed to Dubai, on one of the most expensive airlines in the world.

As a caveat though, if foreclosure really can cause the utmost kind of country hatred, I would be taking a page out of John O’Brien’s book, and Leaving Las Vegas.

Ok, not really, but the headlines covering 2009 foreclosures may as well have purported such a figure. CNNMoney.com offered an article titled, “Record 3 million households hit with foreclosure in 2009.” The article written by Les Christie and published on January 14, 2010 seemingly reports three million foreclosures last year or at least that’s what the headline reads.

Let’s hope visitors to the site at least read through the first paragraph which states, “Almost 3 million homeowners received at least one foreclosure filing during 2009.”

Even more so, let’s hope that these visitors read through the fourth paragraph which offers even more insight. The article states that while foreclosures FILINGS were at record highs, that actual bank repossessions, or what people in the industry like to call ‘foreclosures’ only increased 1% from 2008 figures. According to RealtyTrac and other foreclosure listing companies the average total remained under a million foreclosures.

In other words a more accurate headline would have read, “2009 foreclosures less than 1 million.”

Call me crazy, but the information provided in the fourth paragraph seems much more considerable than the headline and subsequent introductory paragraph. As ForeclosureResearch has disseminated in the past foreclosure filings should not be utilized to give an accurate interpretation of foreclosures or bank repossessions on a per household basis. Many times a single homeowner will receive up to 3 notices or filings. Also, many investors defaulting on a number of houses each receiving up to 3 notices a piece does not accurately depict the average homeowner.

States across the country should take an initiative similar to Colorado and gain control of their foreclosure statistics. In the meantime someone please send a memo to Christie containing the definition of foreclosure.

On the upside, while foreclosures are up from previous years, many states have seen consecutive months of decreased foreclosure rates. Some experts say recent legislation, specifically the Obama Administration’s Making Home Affordable Program, has played a significant role in the latest figures.

The program offers homeowners with mortgages guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac the option to refinance at more affordable rates or more affordable payment schedules. The program is back by $75 billion in tax payer funds.

However, the billion dollar question may be “is it working?” According to a recent article on ABC News, “more than one-quarter of homeowners receiving help under a U.S. government foreclosure prevention plan are behind on their new mortgage payments.”

Proponents of the plan say it’s too early to tell and that many of the modifications are only temporarily. The key to success surely would be making the modifications permanent. However, banks it seems continue to be reluctant in making such changes.

RealtyTrac seems to be the only major listing company that offered statistics for August. The foreclosure listing company reported a 1 percent decrease in filings with a 13 percent decrease in repossessions. ForeclosureS.com didn’t offer a report for the month presumably because they found an increase in fillings, as they have historically reported larger number of properties in foreclosure.

Here are some of this week’s headlines:

From the Washington Post: “Foreclosure Filings Were Flat in August.”
The Post chose to use the lower valued decrease (1 percent) of filings as opposed to actual repossessions.

From CNNMoney.com: “Foreclosures: The struggle continues.” While the article states the decrease in the 4th paragraph, the major premise was that pre-foreclosures, although also having exhibited a decrease, may continue to creep back.

Los Angeles Business Journal reports: “RealtyTrac: California ranks 3rd in August Foreclosures.” This ranking down from second which should have been stated in the headline as the more important statement.

From the Columbus Business First BizJournal: “Ohio’s August foreclosures nudge up.” This nudge refers to the 3 percent increase from July. July happened to show a 15 percent decrease. In other words a 12 percent decrease since June.

Boston.com reports: “Foreclosures still high, even as economy brightens.” The article does not even mention the 13 percent decrease.

From the Financial Times: “US foreclosure flings remain near record high.” This article also has no mention of the 13 percent decrease in repossessions, only that “foreclosure activity among US properties slipped last month for the first time since May.”

Within the first 15 articles on a Google News search only one article mentions the national decrease. This comes from the Philadelphia Inquirer, “Foreclosures dip from July number.” However, you won’t find the larger decrease of 13 percent until the 9th paragraph.

In order to boost morale the media outlets should put a little more consideration on highlighting the upside of the economic situation.

The first half of 2009 foreclosure reports continues to trickle in. Coming as no surprise to readers of Foreclosure Research, the reports have their variances in outcomes- some of these variances greater than others.

The latest report is comprised of figures from ForeclosureS.com who is no stranger to the media spotlight. The report was published in the Orlando Business Journal on July 9, 2009 titled, “Fla. Ranks No. 2 in foreclosures.”

According to the article, ForeclosureS.com reported 256,133 filings between January 2009 and June 2009. As for bank repossessions, ForeclosureS.com reported 53,548.

Meanwhile, according to the recent Foreclosure Research post, http://foreclosureresearch.com/2009/07/florida-foreclosures-the-real-breakdown/ “Florida Foreclosures: The Real Breakdown,” RealtyTrac reported a much different figure. According to their first-half of 2009 report, there were 268,064 filings and only 35,414 bank repossessions, or actual foreclosures. The difference? A whopping 18,134 homes, or a 51% deviation. A breakdown of the figures can be seen below.

Florida: January- June

Repossessions
RealtyTrac: 35,414
Foreclosures.com: 53,548

Difference: 18,134
51% deviation

Foreclosure Filings
RealtyTrac: 268,064
ForeclosureS.com: 256,133

You be the judge of what is going on here. Are they pulling these numbers out of their hats for the press in order to drive people to their websites? It looks like that way to us at Foreclosure Research.