According to a report from Lender Processing Services (which is facing a whole lot of lawsuits, for what it is worth) foreclosure starts and inventories surged in March. Foreclosure inventories were up to 2.2 million, an all-time record, and foreclosure starts were up by 33% month-over-month.
We have predicted that 2011 would be the year of foreclosure, and that prediction appears to be coming true. Foreclosure activity was down throughout most of the first quarter due to moratoria and increased legal scrutiny as a result of the robo-signing/documentation-forgery scandal. Despite this, lenders and servicers appear to have kicked their foreclosure apparatus into high gear. Barring sweeping legal or regulatory changes, I expect the foreclosure train to roll on unabated.
Mortgage delinquencies are declining, down 11 percent from February, hitting the lowest levels since 2008. We may see this number begin to increase again though, as home prices have been declining for months, and the more homeowners fall underwater, the more likely they are to default. Home prices are falling largely due to low demand for homes and a huge (and growing) unsold supply. Yesterday Clear Capital reported home values are now in double dip territory, and other reports (Case-Shiller, FHFA, RadarLogic) show similar results.
Loading ...
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Leave a comment