Questions

Posted on December 9, 2009
Filed Under Vancouver Homes | Leave a Comment

[memedex: pollid#491092]

          
Will Interest Rates Go Up Next Year?

Posted on December 8, 2009
Filed Under Vancouver Homes | Leave a Comment

The overwhelming opinion is rates will go up sometime next year.   If teh feds do not support the low rates buying MBS than it would be fair to say non-fed investors will demand a higher return.  If you have an opinion please share it in the comment section.

          
Delinquent mortgages up 58% from year ago

Posted on November 21, 2009
Filed Under Foreclosures, Real Estate News | 1 Comment

The pace at which homeowners are falling behind on their mortgages is declining, however, the overall delinquency rate hit another record.

reo bank owned properties

Posted on November 19, 2009
Filed Under Vancouver Homes | Leave a Comment

The meltdown continues!

Shadow Inventory – to Wreck Havoc Soon!

Posted on April 13, 2009
Filed Under Foreclosures | 4 Comments

Shadow Inventory is a term that refers to unsold foreclosures.  These are homes being held back from the foreclosing bank and not yet placed on the market for sale.  No one really knows how large the problem is the banks and the public are facing.

There are various statistics available from DataQuick, RealtyTrac and also ForeclosureRadar.   In the San Francisco Bay Area 9 Counties it is estimated approx. 35% or more of foreclosed homes  have not been listed for sale yet – representing approx. 20,000 homes and possibly as high as 100,000 homes.   It is possible  that a similar trend is happening in the Vancouver – Portland area.  Perhaps not quite as severe, however.

There are several speculative reasons for this “shadow inventory of unsold bank owned homes”.    The system may be overwhelmed by the amount of homes on the books that need to be processed for resale.  The banks may be holding bank on listing too many for sale – preventing a free fall of home prices.  The banks may be holding back to create an illusion that their balance sheets aren’t as bad as they really are.

In addition to this shadow inventory there is another huge wave of foreclosures to hit the market.  These are homes that have been placed under a moratorium which halted the foreclosure process in order to try work out’s with the homeowners via loan modifications of various types.   In essense this will be a wave upon another wave.. or 2 waves back to back.. whichever way you want to look at it.

Here is a quote by Patrick Newport, a U.S. Economist with Global Insight – a Mass. research firm:

“The problem is that no one knows how extensive (the shadow inventory) is,” “It’s a wild card. If it’s a really big number, you’ll see prices drop a lot more and deeper problems for the financial system.”

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