Shadow Inventory In October Down Over 12 Percent from Year Ago

dennis-norman-realtor

Shadow Inventory (properties with seriously delinquent mortgages, are in foreclosure or owned by lenders (REO) but not currently listed on the MLS) are a leading indicator of future foreclosure rates so it is good to see that the shadow inventory in the U.S. in October fell to 2.3 million units, a decline of 12.3 percent from a year ago, according to a report from CoreLogic.

Other highlights from the report include:

Continue reading “Shadow Inventory In October Down Over 12 Percent from Year Ago

Declining shadow inventory paves way for housing market recovery

dennis-norman-st-louis-realtor-Shadow inventory, one of the “culprits” that eats away at the housing market and puts downward pressure on home prices, fell to 2.3 million homes in July 2012, down 10.2 percent from July 2011. This works out to a six month supply of shadow inventor and is roughly the same as things stood back in March 2009. Shadow inventory consists of properties with seriously delinquent mortgages (90+ days delinquent), in the foreclosure process or owned by a lender but not listed for sale in the MLS. In other words, shadow inventory is a glimpse of things to come in terms of distressed sales therefore when we see declines in the numbers like this, it is encouraging and yet another sign that a recovery of the housing market may be on the way. Continue reading “Declining shadow inventory paves way for housing market recovery

Shadow inventory falls back to 2008 levels

dennis-norman-st-louis-realtor-real-estate-saint-louis-missouri Yesterday, CoreLogic released their shadow inventory report which showed that the current residential shadow inventory (as of April 2012) had fallen to 1.5 million units, representing a supply of four months which is a 14.8 percent decline from a year ago when shadow inventory stood at 1.8 million units, or a six-months’ supply. The April 2012 level is roughly equal to the level we saw back in October 2008, which is good news! Continue reading “Shadow inventory falls back to 2008 levels

Report shows For Every Two Homes Available for Sale, There Is One in the "Shadow"

st-louis-realtor-dennis-norman-shadow-inventory-corelogicA report released this morning by CoreLogic shows that the current residential “shadow” inventory as of January 2012 was 1.6 million units, equivalent to a 6-months’ supply, and approximately the same level last reported in October 2011. The shadow inventory is down from a year ago though, when it was at 1.8 million units, or an 8-months’ supply. Currently, the flow of new seriously delinquent (90 days or more) loans into the shadow inventory has been offset by the roughly equal flow of distressed sales (short and real estate owned), according to the report.

“Almost half of the shadow inventory is not yet in the foreclosure process,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. “Shadow inventory also remains concentrated in states impacted by sharp price declines and states with long foreclosure timelines.” Continue reading “Report shows For Every Two Homes Available for Sale, There Is One in the "Shadow"

Shadow Inventory Continues to Decline; Good news for the housing market

Dennis Norman St Louis

A report released this morning by CoreLogic shows that the current residential “shadow” inventory as of July 2011 declined slightly from 1.7 million units in April to 1.6 million units, and was down from 1.9 million units a year ago. This current shadow inventory represents a 5 month supply. CoreLogic includes in it’s shadow inventory numbers properties that are either 90+ days delinquent on mortgages, in some stage of foreclosure, or an REO but not presently for sale in an MLS. Continue reading “Shadow Inventory Continues to Decline; Good news for the housing market

REO’s and Shadow Inventory are Roadblock to Recovery of Housing Market

Dennis Norman St LouisA report issued yesterday by Equifax reveals just how severe the impact of shadow inventory (homes that have been, or should be, foreclosed on but have not been put back on the market for sale yet) and REO’s (properties owned by lenders after acquiring through foreclosure) are on a housing market recovery. Continue reading “REO’s and Shadow Inventory are Roadblock to Recovery of Housing Market

Report shows shadow inventory continues to decline

Dennis Norman St Louis

A report released this morning by CoreLogic shows that the current residential “shadow” inventory as of April 2011 declined to 1.7 million units, down from 1.9 million units a year ago. This current shadow inventory represents a 5 month supply, same as the supply a year ago. Continue reading “Report shows shadow inventory continues to decline

Report shows foreclosure inventories on the rise; 8 times higher than normal levels

A report issued by Lender Processing Services, one of the countries largest loan servicers and aggregators of loan performance data, shows that while mortgage delinquencies continue to decline, an enormous backlog of foreclosures still exists and is expected to continue for some time. As of the end of March, foreclosure inventory levels stand at 8 times historical “norms”. Continue reading “Report shows foreclosure inventories on the rise; 8 times higher than normal levels

Shadow Inventory Drops Slightly but still at Nine-Month Supply

Dennis Norman St Louis

A report released this morning by CoreLogic shows that the current residential “shadow” inventory as of January 2011 declined to 1.8 million units, down slightly from 2.0 million units a year ago.  This current shadow inventory represents a 9 month supply, same as the suply a year ago. Continue reading “Shadow Inventory Drops Slightly but still at Nine-Month Supply

Report shows enormous backlog of foreclosures

A report issued by Lender Processing Services, one of the countries largest loan servicers and aggregators of loan performance data, shows that while mortgage delinquencies continue to decline, an enormous backlog of foreclosures still exists and is expected to continue for some time. As of the end of February, foreclosure inventory levels stand at more than 30 times the monthly foreclosure sales volume. Continue reading “Report shows enormous backlog of foreclosures

Report suggests distressed sales will hurt housing market for some time to come

A report released today by CoreLogic shows that, while the overall inventory of homes for sale has remained the same in the past year at 4.2 million new and existing homes for sale as of August, the number of homes in “shadow inventory” has grown from 6.1 million a year before to 6.3 million as of August, 2010. Continue reading “Report suggests distressed sales will hurt housing market for some time to come

‘Shadow’ Foreclosure Inventory is the 800 lb Gorilla

Dennis Norman

For way too long I’ve been writing about record, or near- record, levels of foreclosures and mortgage delinquencies. My ongoing concern about this, in terms of the housing market, is that I just don’t see how we are going to have a sustainable recovery of the housing market while we have 1 in 8 homeowners with a mortgage in the U.S. currently either delinquent on their mortgage or in some stage of the foreclosure process.

Lately there has appeared to be some leveling off of mortgage delinquencies and foreclosure growth is at a slowing rate, both of which are good things. Earlier this week I wrote about a report that came out from LPS Applied Analytics, one of the largest mortgage servicers in the U.S., that discussed the mortgage delinquency rate for May. This morning I was giving more thought to something in the report that I saw the other day but it didn’t hit me at the time but now I realize it is potentially the 800 lb gorilla in the room.

According to the report, the average number of days for a loan to move from 30 days delinquent to foreclosure sale has been steadily increasing and is now at an all-time high of 449 days. So, if you add the initial delinquency, that means on average 479 days lapse from the time a borrower misses a payment until they are foreclosed on. While I love the amount of time the struggling homeowner has to stay in their home before losing it, it concerns me greatly that it is taking about 16 months for the lender to complete a foreclosure, and that this is a record high amount of time. What that tells me is, for one reason or another, lenders are stalling and slowing the foreclosure process so any encouragement we have seen of late in this area may be “artificially created” as the result of lenders reluctance to foreclose rather than a result of the housing market and economy actually improving.

The problem is the lenders can’t put off the inevitable forever…at some point they are going to have to pick up the pace and start foreclosing on loans rather than stalling and that I’m afraid is going to keep the foreclosure rates at levels that will negatively impact the housing market.