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Is there another depression wave on the way? 
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Glut of foreclosed homes expected to depress prices
Lannis Waters/The Palm Beach Post
WEST PALM BEACH - People gather outside foreclosure judge Meenu Sasser's courtroom Thursday morning.
By Kimberly Miller Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
/* */Updated: 6:02 p.m. Thursday, July 15, 2010
Posted: 5:27 a.m. Thursday, July 15, 2010
Banks are expected to take back more than 1 million homes nationwide before the year is over, raising concerns about further price drops as more foreclosed properties work through the system and onto the market.
A report released today by RealtyTrac, a housing analysis firm based in Irvine, Calif., found bank repossessions in the second quarter increased 38 percent over the same time last year, adding that a "massive number of distressed properties and underwater loans threaten the fragile stability of the housing market."
In Florida, 12,936 homes were seized in June, a 76 percent increase over the same time last year. Nearly 530 Palm Beach County homes were repossessed in June - fewer than the previous month but three times the amount in June 2009.
At the same time, initial notices of foreclosure continued to plateau or decrease compared with last year, dropping 50 percent in Palm Beach County and 31 percent statewide.
RealtyTrac measures initial foreclosure filings, notices of sale and bank takeovers, the final stage in foreclosures.
Hank Fishkind, president of Fishkind & Associates, an Orlando-based financial and real estate consultant firm, likened the foreclosures to a rabbit moving through the digestive system of a snake.
"The lump is carrying through, and now we will get huge volumes of distress sales," Fishkind said. "Sales will go up but prices will go down."
Palm Beach County's median price for a single-family home in May was $235,200, already down $155,800 from May 2006.
"The bank takeovers are painful now," said Fishkind, whose company has offices in Naples and Port St. Lucie.
Some of that pain is illustrated Monday through Thursday mornings on the 11th floor of the Palm Beach County Courthouse, as attorneys jostle for uniform motion calendar hearings in front of foreclosure Judge Meenu Sasser.
Once held in a smaller fourth-floor courtroom, the housekeeping-type hearings moved to a more spacious area upstairs because of their volume. Still, long lines of attorneys signing in, searching for the other party in the case - sometimes by shouting a name - and lingering in the hallway can appear chaotic.
"It's just higher numbers than we are used to dealing with," said Chief Judge Peter Blanc of the Palm Beach County Circuit Court.
Blanc got $640,000 from the state this year to hire two senior judges and six case managers to help with foreclosures.
RealtyTrac CEO James Saccacio said that along with the 1 million bank takeovers, 3 million properties are projected to receive foreclosure filings by the end of the year.
Bank of America, which has more than 1 million Florida loans, said the increase in bank takeovers and decrease in initial filings were expected as borrowers fell out of federal loan modification programs that began last year and banks tried harder to prevent initial defaults by negotiating short sales.
"We have a policy that no sale is to be completed until we have exhausted all foreclosure prevention options," Bank of America spokesman Richard Simon said.
Still, Simon was not optimistic that foreclosures would significantly decrease in the near future.
"We expect the magnitude and extended nature of the economic recession, particularly the high rate of unemployment in many parts of the country, inevitably will continue to drive foreclosure activity in the months ahead," he said.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/money/r...es-803765.html
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Glut of foreclosed homes expected to depress prices
Lannis Waters/The Palm Beach Post
WEST PALM BEACH - People gather outside foreclosure judge Meenu Sasser's courtroom Thursday morning.
By Kimberly Miller Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
/* */Updated: 6:02 p.m. Thursday, July 15, 2010
Posted: 5:27 a.m. Thursday, July 15, 2010
Banks are expected to take back more than 1 million homes nationwide before the year is over, raising concerns about further price drops as more foreclosed properties work through the system and onto the market.
A report released today by RealtyTrac, a housing analysis firm based in Irvine, Calif., found bank repossessions in the second quarter increased 38 percent over the same time last year, adding that a "massive number of distressed properties and underwater loans threaten the fragile stability of the housing market."
In Florida, 12,936 homes were seized in June, a 76 percent increase over the same time last year. Nearly 530 Palm Beach County homes were repossessed in June - fewer than the previous month but three times the amount in June 2009.
At the same time, initial notices of foreclosure continued to plateau or decrease compared with last year, dropping 50 percent in Palm Beach County and 31 percent statewide.
RealtyTrac measures initial foreclosure filings, notices of sale and bank takeovers, the final stage in foreclosures.
Hank Fishkind, president of Fishkind & Associates, an Orlando-based financial and real estate consultant firm, likened the foreclosures to a rabbit moving through the digestive system of a snake.
"The lump is carrying through, and now we will get huge volumes of distress sales," Fishkind said. "Sales will go up but prices will go down."
Palm Beach County's median price for a single-family home in May was $235,200, already down $155,800 from May 2006.
"The bank takeovers are painful now," said Fishkind, whose company has offices in Naples and Port St. Lucie.
Some of that pain is illustrated Monday through Thursday mornings on the 11th floor of the Palm Beach County Courthouse, as attorneys jostle for uniform motion calendar hearings in front of foreclosure Judge Meenu Sasser.
Once held in a smaller fourth-floor courtroom, the housekeeping-type hearings moved to a more spacious area upstairs because of their volume. Still, long lines of attorneys signing in, searching for the other party in the case - sometimes by shouting a name - and lingering in the hallway can appear chaotic.
"It's just higher numbers than we are used to dealing with," said Chief Judge Peter Blanc of the Palm Beach County Circuit Court.
Blanc got $640,000 from the state this year to hire two senior judges and six case managers to help with foreclosures.
RealtyTrac CEO James Saccacio said that along with the 1 million bank takeovers, 3 million properties are projected to receive foreclosure filings by the end of the year.
Bank of America, which has more than 1 million Florida loans, said the increase in bank takeovers and decrease in initial filings were expected as borrowers fell out of federal loan modification programs that began last year and banks tried harder to prevent initial defaults by negotiating short sales.
"We have a policy that no sale is to be completed until we have exhausted all foreclosure prevention options," Bank of America spokesman Richard Simon said.
Still, Simon was not optimistic that foreclosures would significantly decrease in the near future.
"We expect the magnitude and extended nature of the economic recession, particularly the high rate of unemployment in many parts of the country, inevitably will continue to drive foreclosure activity in the months ahead," he said.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/money/r...es-803765.html