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Showing posts from May, 2010

The Future of Distressed Homeowner Programs

Should this home be 'saved'? I read a wake up article today by a mortgage market advisor  Mark Hanson , who suggested that unless foreclosures double from the April 2010 record, the 'shadow inventory' of homes on the market --it will take at least 8-10 years to clear the sales backlog of homes for sale. Wow. Which suggests, by deduction, that our national housing markets will be affected by these lower priced distressed homes lagging if not languishing on the market beside new and non distressed homes, affecting their values for years. OK so that's the downside. But for every dark cloud there is a silver lining...right? What is the real effect of foreclosures in your local market? Are people who don't need to sell helping stabilize their local economies by staying put regardless of their paper 'losses' in value? Mr. Hanson goes on to suggest:  "Massive-scale home retention (mortgage mod) programs have truly helped only a small slice but primari