Foreclosures Up, But Not as High as Expected
Even though January foreclosures are up 8 percent from December, and up 57 percent from January 2007, the month-to-month spike from a year ago was higher. For some, this means that government mortgage programs — and threats of more to come — may be helping to end the foreclosure specter.
However, questions remain. Inman News points out that while some foreclosures may be forestalled for now, the inevitable could still take place down the road:
“It could be that some of the efforts on the part of lenders and the government — both at the state and federal level — are beginning to take effect. The big question is whether those efforts are truly helping homeowners avoid foreclosure in the long term or if they are just temporarily forestalling the inevitable for many beleaguered borrowers,” he added.
Most of the efforts made so far are designed to be temporary, and that means that unless a fundamental change is made, the foreclosures will eventually happen. Some argue that the “fixes” we are seeing now are no more than an extension to keep beleaguered homeowners “alive” to make a couple more years of payments.
Another problem is the growing number of homeowners that see foreclosure as a smart financial planning decision as they simply walk away from their house payments.
Tags: government mortgage programs, foreclosures, home mortgage loan, mortgage loan blog,
January foreclosures, mortgage fixes, foreclosure financial planning
