Foreclosures driving record gains in existing-home sales
Filed under: Home, Real Estate, Mortgages
I Just want to warn you folks right off the bat that this is going to be one of those is the glass half full or half empty? type posts.On the one hand, the National Association of Realtors is reporting big gains in existing home sales for October (the latest figures) and credits first time buyers rushing to take advantage of the tax credit which has now been extended into next year. Inventories continue to shrink. All good. This now concludes the glass half full portion of this post.
If you look down -- far down -- the news release pumped out by the NAR, you will see something else: So-called "distressed properties" (which conjures up an image in my mind of a house, all by itself, phoning some shrink and asking for prescription meds to battle its depression) account for some 30% of all the October sales.
Distressed properties, of course, are foreclosed properties. This is a reflection of the still never-ending wave of foreclosures that shows no sign of abating anytime soon. Plus, because we are talking distressed properties here, we are also talking about a continuation in the slide of housing prices; with the national median existing-home price now at $173,100, which, says the NAR, is down 7.1% from October of 2008. This is all the glass is half empty portion of this post.
Of course, if you happen to be lucky and still have a job and something that from a distance looks a bit like a good credit score, then this might be a great time to take advantage of some real bargains out there.
But building up a nation's economy on the backs of foreclosed homeowners strikes me as not a very good long-range game plan and, to be honest, has a Charles Dickens feel to it now that the holiday season is upon us.
Charles Feldman is a journalist and media consultant and co-author of the book, "No Time To Think -- The Menace of Media Speed and the 24-hour News Cycle."
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-24-2009 @ 12:40PM
JIM said...
If you atre in or near foreclosure, look at his blog site for possible help. You may need a real estate attorney. THE
http://www.consumerwarningnetwork.com/2008/06/19/produce-the-note-how-to/
You may also wnat to contact your county commissioners as they may be losing tax monies (doc stamps) as if your maortgage was sold and the new oWNERS of your mortgage did not register (pay doc stamps) the mortgage. Check your county to see who/whom is the registered owner of your mortgage. If this is not who/whom you make your payments, then your mortgage POSSIBLY was sold to investors as a mortgae backed security (MBS). Help your county get their justly due tax dollars from these corporations.
QUESTIONS
As mortgages were packaged/bundled into mortgage back securities (MBS) and sold to investors and since these MBSs were bought by investors, with some mortgages being split and owned by several institutions or people (tranches), how can the homeowner/borrower know who actually owns their mortgage? If the homeowner /borrower do not know who actually owns their mortgage, then how does the foreclosure court knows who actually owns the mortgage and CAN actually proceed with the foreclosure? I would say if it is not the company listed at the county and they were paid off when they sold the mortgage, and then a release of lien should be requested for the homeowner. The real estate attorneys representing these possible foreclosed homeowners should request that the foreclosing institution show that they ACTUALLY own the mortgage and can bring foreclosure action to court and are not just the mortgage servicer.
*** Also, since these mortgages were sold without registering the mortgage in the county, the county has lost doc stamps (tax monies) and who/whom really owns the mortgage. Check this blog site about ownership:
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