The number of delinquencies is a dynamic that obviously changes relative to the environment. I apologize for not providing some insight into the hard numbers that your above post requests. Where are we in this process and how much of the problem has already been written off? Is it getting worse, better, or going to be the same and for how long?
I can offer some insight into what I’m seeing in San Diego. Housing values continue to soften.
I’ve noticed, as have many of my associates have also, that foreclosures and short sales are being delayed at all costs. Banks are not moving the inventory and most of the troubled homes sit empty and are degrading. I’ve heard one homeowner in south Chula Vista hasn’t made a payment in over 2 years!
Yesterday, I spoke with one of the neighbors and had to explain supply and demand to him. He was still under the impression that sub-prime borrowers were the cause of the crisis. I explained that banks offered the loans, resulting in more borrowers than there should have been. This created a false demand that a very real supply of homes was built to meet. Now our problem is even more severe … we have too much inventory and not enough buyers.
In my opinion, we started a second down cycle after the expiration of the $8,000, federal tax credit. I know this sounds like I am a bear, but at some point ( as soon as the government stops meddling in the market and thus prolonging the problem) the market has to correct to the fundamentals. The fundamentals being that the housing problem is getting worse, and no one is doing what is needed to fix it.
You don’t need statistics to tell you that Americans are anxious about
their finances. Keep the worry out of mortgages by following these three suggestions.
Americans are worried. According to a recent report by the Rockefeller Foundation,
93 percent of households suffered a minimum of one “substantial economic shockâ€
between March 2008 and September 2009. And, in the summer of 2010, more than 70
percent of Americans were worried about losing their jobs.