Good News for More Than Just The Banks!

That's right, everyone whose a homeowner should be glad to hear the information from RealtyTrac below showing a national decline in foreclosure activity of 8% and 2% for Florida. Foreclosures have a way of driving down sales prices beyond the home in trouble. When you sell your home, if a buyer needs to get a mortgage, and in MOST cases they do, they will have to have your home appraised and it needs to appraise for enough for the bank to feel comfortable loaning money. A foreclosure as one of the comparables (or "comps") will almost surely drive DOWN the appraisal - meaning the bank will loan less money to buyers wanting to put in an offer on your home. Short Sales have a similar effect but it is seemingly exaggerated with foreclosures as while short sales may run to around 75% of the outstanding loan value foreclosures can go much lower. Factor in things like banks NOT wanting property on their books at the end of a fiscal year and rising foreclosures would have driven down selling prices further. So as the article says.... - Mike W

FORECLOSURES DOWN

It's good news - sort of. According to RealtyTrac, foreclosure activities (defaults, notice of foreclosure sales and REO properties) dropped 8 percent nationwide in September. And Florida, though second only to Nevada in the number of foreclosure actions, saw a 2 percent drop since August. The downward trend is good news, but compared to year-ago numbers, many homeowners continue to face challenges in paying the mortgage. Nationwide, the number increased 99 percent in one year - since September 2006. Florida reported 33,354 foreclosure filings for the month, up 158 percent from September 2006. "U.S. foreclosure activity experienced a fairly broad-based retreat in September," says James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac, though it's too soon to suggest a reason for the slowdown. The drop could be just a lull, says Saccacio, or it could be caused by investors jumping into the market and buying foreclosures if they believe the price is now right.

Source - Florida Association of Realtors Early Bird News for 10/10/2007