Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) — U.S. foreclosure filings surpassed 300,000 for an eighth straight month as unemployment made it tougher for homeowners to pay their bills, RealtyTrac, Inc. said.
A total of 332,292 properties received a default or auction notice or were seized by banks in October, up 19 percent from a year earlier, Irvine, California-based RealtyTrac said today. One in every 385 households received a filing. The tally fell 3 percent from September, the third consecutive monthly decline.
“The foreclosure problem is still with us and will keep prices down,” Stephen Miller, chairman of the economics department at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, said in an interview. “The real issue is we don’t know what inventory banks are holding that they have yet to put on the market.”
Distressed real estate transactions accounted for 30 percent of all home sales in the third quarter as the median price fell 11 percent from a year earlier to $177,900, according to the National Association of Realtors. U.S. unemployment surged to a 26-year high of 10.2 percent in October as payrolls fell by 190,000 workers, the Labor Department said last week.
Housing will reach a bottom by March 2010, with lower- priced properties recovering value more quickly than expensive homes, First American CoreLogic said last month.
“The fundamental forces driving foreclosure activity in this housing downturn — high-risk mortgages, negative equity, and unemployment — continue to loom over any nascent recovery,” James Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac, said in the statement. “We continue to see foreclosure activity levels that are substantially higher than a year ago in most states.”
California ranked second, with filings for one in every 156 households. Florida was third, at one in 168, RealtyTrac said. California led in total filings, with 85,420, up 50 percent from a year earlier. Default notices in the most populous state more than doubled and auction notices rose 73 percent, according to RealtyTrac.
“Housing will reach a bottom by March 2010, with lower- priced properties recovering value more quickly than expensive homes, First American CoreLogic said last month.”
I wonder if they’ll provide me with winning lotto numbers to go along with their expert market advice. And all this time I thought you had to be Jamaican to be psychic.
A former employer of mine just let go of 17% of its workforce yesterday. This in a supposed ‘recession-proof’ industry.
On the bright side I’m starting to see some houses I like in Carlsbad edge closer to what I’d pay for them. Hopefully some foreclosures push them the rest of the way there.
Good. This means more business for the company that I work for.
Based out of Kansas, we are indirectly hired by the banks to go out and place offers on various properties.
When you see a property with multiple offers there’s a very good chance one of our “buyers” is in the top 3.
Californiacation keeping us busy.
“Housing will reach a bottom by March 2010, with lower- priced properties recovering value more quickly than expensive homes, First American CoreLogic said last month.”
My prediction is in 2011 First American CoreLogic will say the exact same thing.
Back in 2006 when forecasters were saying the bottom will be in 2010, many were saying
“sounds about right”.
Now in late 2009 as those same forecasters are saying the bottom will be in 2010, those forecasts are met with derision.
“When you see a property with multiple offers there’s a very good chance one of our “buyers” is in the top 3.”
I call BS. If you are trying to say that your company is bidding prices up on behalf of the lenders, we who have been looking in this area know that is unnecessary. We here on this blog know intimately the struggles of trying to find a reasonably priced property, scouring Redfin daily and looking at houses the first day offered. We have seen the carloads of families doing the same thing as us, they are not phantom bidders.
This practice might go on somewhere, but certainly not here in the areas this blog describes.
Please take your needless trolling elsewhere.
The forecasts some people make are absolutely ridiculous. “First American CoreLogic” is probably in the pocket of the NAR.
Californiacation huh?… please.
If California ranked 2nd and Florida ranked third – who was first?
I’m guessing Arizona or Nevada…
Another shilled forecast.
A year ago it may have looked as though 2010 could be a bottom. Ad plus 10% unemployment and a “recovery” that is more news story than reality and it’s not difficult to say that calling a bottom in March of 2010 is BS.
But I’m open minded. Let’s see what would have to be described as a nearly miraculous recovery in this and the next quarter and maybe things will look better. I’m not betting on it now and I doubt I would change than in the next five months but I’ll admit it’s possible.
Right along with someone here having the next winning Lotto numbers.
From my perspective anyone deriding bears for being too negative has their own agenda to fulfill and isn’t looking all that closely at the bigger picture.
Jim,
How about a new run on Beefy-T with famous housing quotes and their dates on the front/back?
In re: the bottom calls, I find it very important to be flexible in their thinking.
I know someone who waited out the late 80’s early 90s bubble. She stubbornly refused to accept the factual bottom in 1996 because prices didnt reach her predetermined level of what the bottom would be. She continued to believe it was a “dead cat bounce” or that the bottom was always “one year away”.
Sadly – she is still now renting 20+ years later…
Alicia,
“Sadly – she is still now renting 20+ years later…”
Or, she’s sitting on 500k in liquid cash.
Depends on prevailing rents in her area, and Mello Roos fees, and insurance costs, and HOA fees, and how often she moves, and…
It’s true that it looks as if things could bottom out in summer 2010. It’s probably because there’s a group of star worshippers who are predicting the end of the world in 2010.
Or, she’s sitting on 500k in liquid cash.
Trust me – shes not…
SD is now actually trending down in housing defaults.
http://www.nctimes.com/business/c5ab36be-09f9-540f-bd6a-8006a4629fe2.html
Also–xactly what Jim had reported with the 3rd party purchases at the Trustee Sale–up 381% from last year.
It’s a good news! Meaning to say that real estate business is good nowadays. :):):)