More foreclosures to come....WOOT! (short sales, insurance, mortgage)

[Col.W.Deering]

Good news! Looks like there will be an upswing in foreclosures....

Mortgage default warnings surged in August - Yahoo! Finance

[TamRE]

Yes, we do expect more foreclosures to come on the market in the next several months. Even some of the short sales are turning into foreclosures. I see so many vacant houses just waiting for their turn to be bought and lived in. Come on down to Southwest Florida and get a great deal on a home. The homes need someone to love and take care of them.

[SoFLGal]

I can tell you that Oct and Nov will be down for foreclosures coming on. You can look at the foreclosure auctions and see what might be coming up.

Honestly, I think it might be more like Jan or so before we really see more coming on.

[QuilterChick]

My feeling is that there will be many bargain hunters coming to FL from October to May this year; whether they are investors or folks wanting to relocate, it will be an upward curve. Hope I'm not being too optimistic.

[gypsychic]

Originally Posted by QuilterChick

My feeling is that there will be many bargain hunters coming to FL from October to May this year; whether they are investors or folks wanting to relocate, it will be an upward curve. Hope I'm not being too optimistic.

I totally agree. Things really seemed to be moving in this past year. I am no realtor, but I have noticed a lot being sold, and even business-wise there has been a lot happening with a lot of projects on the burner so to speak.

[Col.W.Deering]

Although there aren't any houses that we are interested in at the moment, we decided to price out cost of furnishings, etc. Every furniture salesperson we met were surprised we were locals looking to buy our first home. They all stated that the people buying furnishings were foreigners.

As SoFLGal stated, it will probably be January before my hubby and I have some choices in houses.

[Big House]

I track the foreclosure market very carefully, and do not see the flood gates opening on foreclosures coming on line for a few more months - at least. These take time to go through the system, so it is not going to happen soon, and when it does the banks are going to control the release so that they keep the demand and supply at a more even rate than what happened a year or more ago - at least in SWFL where we are no longer in the top 10 worse housing markets and are recovering quickly.

So, we are past the bottom. Prices are beginning to rise, and the banks (who want to make as much money as anyone else) are not going to let them go as cheaply as they had to a couple years ago.

That said, the market and supply will be a buyers market for a while, but the deals won't be quite as good. And, as the snowbirds and other northerners come here looking for deals prices will continue to rise for the next several months. If these shoppers come down and continue to deplete the supply it won't be till next spring that prices recede much.

[jdahunt]

Just got home from my 4 trip to Florida this year looking for a second home. Prices continue to drop, realtors and banks are pressing harder and harder than ever to get a sell. I'm going to keep holding off until this next tsunami of foreclosures hit, then I'll jump in and pick one or two up.

My cousin who is a property investment expert is telling me that his computer model is predicting another 10-15% drop in home values in the next year.

[Jabronie]

Shesh, lots of people frothing at the mouth over other people's loss. Sad.

[HenryHelmhazzard]

Originally Posted by Jabronie

Shesh, lots of people frothing at the mouth over other people's loss. Sad.

Frothing? That's a bit of an overstatement (and I think Col. Deering was being somewhat facetious).

It should be said that that if it weren't for people purchasing foreclosed homes, the economic decline would be a bottomless pit, and we would already be knee deep in a greater depression due to the housing market losing any footing at all, and then there are the ancillary losses of transactional tax revenues, property taxes, insurance revenues, RE commissions, home improvement materials and labor, payroll taxes, tourism dollars, ad nauseum...

I really do feel bad when someone loses their home through truly unfortunate circumstances. But so many of the stories I hear firsthand are people losing their houses through lack of initial equity / overbuying, HELOCs the size of Nantucket, and speculators going bust when the game of musical chair refinance ended.

Comparatively speaking, it's far more rare that I hear of a responsible person losing their job in a difficult job market, then losing their personal home to a foreclosure. It happens, but it's not been the norm in my personal experiences. Mortgages were given out left and right to people who should never have qualified for them had saner heads prevailed in legislature. No-doc / low-doc loans were one of the most ridiculous things ever heard of. A dose of common sense and self control among the masses would have gone a long way, too.

Unemployment rates alone don't come close to explaining the cataclysm we've seen in housing - for many, this was Vegas, plain and simple.

Let's face it, America got fat and sassy with house fever and in many ways brought this mess upon ourselves. I can't begin to tell you how many times I have seen a foreclosure with a history of cash-out refinances that hollowed the equity out of a property's bones. Repeat after me: Houses Are Not Piggy Banks.

We should welcome personal home buyers and investors to the mix - more often than not, they are all-cash buyers and are life support for the flagging economy.

The fact that they are looking for the best deal possible is no different than when someone goes to shop for a shirt/dress/tv/car ... do they lament the plight of the poor retailer who has to mark down their merchandise in order to find a buyer? Don't you smile when you find something good for 50% off?

Or do you bow your head in recognition of Harry in supply chain management who will no doubt get a pink slip because 3D TVs aren't moving as well as predicted this season?


-HHH