Tag Archives: Foreclosures

Declining Delinquency

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac report that the rate at which single family mortgages that are three months in arrears or in foreclosure declined to 2.77% and 2.79% respectively in June, down from all-time highs of 5.59% and 4.20% respectively in February 2010. While the rates are down 50% and 33% respectively, at this pace it will, unfortunately, take until 2017 before the rate returns to normal, or about 0.8%.

Affordable Foreclosures

A key reason why new home activity has fallen off sharply is because new homes are now about 30% more expensive than existing ones; double the typical margin. Foreclosures and short sales accounted for 40% of all sales in February ’11 compared to just 25% in ’10. Moreover, some builders in hard hit spots continue to unload homes for less than what they cost to build exacerbating this problem.