Foreclosed Properties Data Articles

With election fever hitting the country, many citizens are wondering how these Presidential candidates will address the crisis in the real estate market. Republican nominee John McCain stated Tuesday that the national government should not focus on rewarding or saving borrowers and lenders caught in this fiasco. Instead, he would like to consider proposals based on benefits and costs.

Democrats are reacting to his statements saying that the Republican bet do not possess the sufficient economic knowledge and skills to get the country out of an impending recession. They also believe that John McCain is taking a hands-off approach, just like President George Bush. John McCain himself has acknowledged that economy is really not his forte.

The current housing crisis has already resulted to millions of homes in some stage of foreclosure. Home prices have also declined dramatically in the last years and sales have remained sluggish. The federal government has also bailed out numerous investment companies that have lost millions of dollars when the subprime mortgage industry crashed. In fact, just a couple of days ago, the Fed auctioned short-term loans amounting to $50 billion to banks in order to help them with their credit troubles. As of December, about $260B worth of short-term loans has been provided by the federal government.

It is very important for the citizens of this country to be smart come election time. The next government will play an instrumental part in the nation’s recovery and the next president should have concrete plans and solutions that will address the housing crisis. If not, the nation might eventually fall into a recession, resulting to millions of homes in foreclosure. To date, home prices have reached a record low and 6 out of 10 mortgage applications are for refinancing. These are just some of the important signs that the government should take seriously.

More information on the housing market crisis is available at Foreclosed Properties Data.

At the end of the second week in March (March 14), the volume of mortgage applications plunged by almost 3 percent. This is according to a survey conducted on weekly applications by the Mortgage Bankers Association. The index fell from 671.7 to 652 that same week.

In addition to these, refinance volume also fell by 4.6 percent and the purchase volume by 1 percent. These refinance applications actually accounted for almost 50 percent of the total mortgage applications. This is also the first time in 2008 when weekly purchase applications were higher that refinance applications.

Mortgage applications peaked during the 2003 housing boom, resulting to an index of 1,856.7. An index of 652 can be translated to mortgage activity that is 6.52 times higher than the very first index data obtained in 1990. This index survey paints a picture of the mortgage lending activities of commercial banks, thrifts and mortgage bankers. It basically covers about 50 percent of the total residential mortgage originations every week.

Surprisingly, volume applications dropped the same time that the fixed-rate mortgage rates plunged from 6.37 percent to 5.98 percent. Interest rates, on the other hand, are still swinging.

Clearly, a drop in mortgage application can mean that buyer confidence is not good. With the foreclosure crisis still consuming most of the legislators, many people are hopeful that the end of this problem will soon come. Some experts are saying that about 20 million Americans will be affected by the housing market crisis and this grim prediction is certainly making investors and buyers even more hesitant when it comes to shelling out money.

If you are a buyer or investors looking to enjoy great savings, you should consider buying foreclosed properties. For more information on foreclosure investing, please check out Foreclosed Properties Data.

As one of the largest subprime mortgage lenders in the nation, New Century escaped its credit troubles a decade ago when US Bancorp decided to give the company fresh capital. Unfortunately, their run recently ran out as brokerage firms and Wall Street banks have decided to take back the billion dollar credit line it gave a couple of months ago.

According to New Century, their lenders have frozen credit lines and are demanding that they buy back almost $8.4 billion in mortgage loans. These loans were issued using money borrowed from the banks and not from New Century’s pocket.

The last few days saw New Century in negotiations with several lenders about debtor-in-possession financing that is supposed to be included in the filing for bankruptcy. The lending company would then be able to sell its assets or even itself within the terms of the bankruptcy filing.

New Century has suffered much in the wake of the current foreclosure crisis, experiencing almost 90 percent fall in their stock price. If Morgan Stanley did not step in and offered a generous financing package worth $975 million, the company might have drowned.

The most surprising thing about this unfortunate New Century situation is the way the banks pulled out its previous assistance so fast that the lending company did not realize that they have been abandoned. Most probably, the decision of these banks to do so came from the increasing number of mortgage defaults observed in the previous six months.

As the foreclosure crisis deepens, it can be expected that more lending companies will most likely suffer the same fate as New Century. These companies should hope that efforts made by the government to intervene will somehow pay off and provide them with a way out of this very sticky mess.

If you would like to enjoy more foreclosure news and information, simply browse Foreclosed Properties Data.

Struggling to reduce the negative impact of the present mortgage crisis, Congress finally feels confident that a bill providing safe alternatives to subprime housing loans will soon be sent to the President for signature.

After surveying over 330 housing markets; the National City Corp and Global Insight discovered that over 88 percent of these markets showed a decline in home prices. Such decline surprisingly improved home affordability, creating the perfect opportunity for buying.

According to the same report, the housing market may soon become broadly-over valued since home prices are expected to decline further in the coming years. With interest rates remaining steady, buyers will surely enjoy additional advantages. The large inventory of foreclosure properties is also seen as a contributing factor to the plummeting home prices.

The US housing market has been under a lot of stress lately especially with the growing inventory of foreclosed properties. These foreclosure homes are homes that have been repossessed because the owners failed to pay their mortgage dues. Because of this, lenders have no choice but to recover their losses via foreclosure. As of 2007, the number of homes that entered some foreclosure stage has reached millions – causing much distress on the national housing market.