Foreclosures still coming

At the end of 2010, 71,665 Minnesotans received pre-foreclosure notices. That does not bode well for 2011. According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune…

About 71,665 struggling homeowners got the notices in 2010, up 8 percent from 2009, according to the Minnesota Home Ownership Center, which released the numbers Thursday. The number of notices rose 3 percent in the Twin Cities metro
area, but 15 percent elsewhere in Minnesota.

And what does that mean for the housing marketplace?

Seemingly endless waves of foreclosures in recent years have taken a human
toll, flooded the housing market and dragged prices down. Foreclosures, short
sales and other lender-mediated sales made up about 36 percent of all Twin
Cities home sales at the end of 2009. In December, they accounted for nearly 48
percent of all homes sold.

Thursday's report is further evidence that housing will trail the economic
recovery, not lead it. On the bright side, Nelson said, when the totals of
pre-foreclosure notices are lined up quarter by quarter, they appear to be
leveling somewhat from when the practice of sending them first began in 2009.

If there are some silver linings – it seems that we will not reach the record foreclosures of 2008 AND pre-foreclosures are not the same thing as foreclosures and they are petty new. They weren’t around in 2008. For some families a pre-foreclosure notice will help them avoid a foreclosure.

Submitted by Buyers Real Estate Agent, Mary Rugani.