by Nancy Osborne, COO of ERATE®
(12-18-09) November was the ninth consecutive month that the pace of foreclosures exceeded 300,000 homes.
Residential foreclosures are on tap to hit 3.9 million this year up from the previous record in 2008 of 3.2 million.
Both government and banking industry efforts to modify delinquent or at risk mortgages have fallen short of expectations as they cannot keep up with the pace of job losses and borrowers with negative equity who are willing to walk away.
There is also evidence of a disturbing trend in which almost a third of the mortgages which have been modified are soon re-defaulting again.
It appeared briefly that foreclosures might have peaked but this was an illusion as foreclosure filings were delayed while modification efforts were underway and interest rate resets on adjustable rate mortgages had slowed.
Once the current crop of modifications is complete, many homes now in the pipeline will be thrown into foreclosure. Further compounding the problem, a new wave of adjustable rate mortgages is on tap to reset in 2011 resulting in yet more foreclosures hitting the market, increasing the supply of housing and putting additional downward pressure on prices.
Nancy Osborne has had experience in the mortgage business for over 20 years and is a founder of both ERATE, where she is currently the COO and Progressive Capital Funding, where she served as President. She has held real estate licenses in several states and has received both the national Certified Mortgage Consultant and Certified Residential Mortgage Specialist designations. Ms. Osborne is also a primary contributing writer and content developer for ERATE.
"I am addicted to Bloomberg TV" says Nancy.
Learn more about foreclosure types, foreclosure problem, straw buyers, how to invest in foreclosed properties, and more in our continuing series
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