Home Foreclosure Inventory Shrinks 21% from Year Ago

foreclosed home on sale

foreclosed home on saleAs reported in DSNews.com, although still at an elevated level, home foreclosure inventory is shrinking and has fallen for 15 straigh months as of January 2013, per a CoreLogic report.  Foreclosure inventory accounted for 2.3 percent of all homes with a mortgage, down from 3.5 percent in January 2012.  “The backlog of distressed assets continues to fade as the foreclosure inventory has fallen to a level not seen since mid-2009,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic.

Read entire DSNews.com article.

California Homeowner Bill of Rights & Foreclosures

One of the most-common misconceptions held by underwater homeowners is that the new California Homeowner Bill of Rights keeps a lender from foreclosing on a home regardless of whether the borrower is pursuing a loan modification or a short sale.  The bill of rights is supposed to restrict lenders from “dual tracking” – repossessing a home while a homeowner is awaiting a decision on a home loan modification application.

When a borrower sends in a complete loan modification application, the foreclosure process should instantly come to a halt. If the lender rejects the application, the borrower has a 30-day period to appeal the decision. The home cannot be foreclosed during that time either.  In a short sale, however, the foreclosure process is halted only after all the lien holders on a home agree to the short sale and the prospective buyer gets financing. All of that can take months. The bottom line, according to one broker: “A foreclosure could easily occur during the attempt to bring about a short sale.”