The story gaining attention is that the foreclosure rates have dipped nationally by 3 percent in the month of October. However, the current rate of foreclosure is almost 20 percent more than what existed in the last year around the same time. During the month of October, there were as many as 332,292 notices of foreclosure, with banks taking over the ownership and defaults.
Now, for the third consecutive month, the foreclosure rates have been declining. This is a welcome signal for the real estate market and should boost the sentiments of the buyer.
The drop in foreclosure rates may also be due to the banks holding back foreclosure proceedings on properties. This is largely because of the rising default levels, increases in loan modification programs and sudden increases in foreclosure numbers leading to overwhelmed operations. California, Florida, Illinois and Michigan made up 52 percent of the total national number of notices for foreclosure.
In addition, to the foreclosure news, October saw first time homebuyers pushing the home sales numbers by contributing 45 percent of all sales made. This was also the result of the tax credit offer expiry on November, which is now pushed back to the June 2010.
The October month also saw home trends go upwards. Buying trends solidified in November with the interest rates going down further to 4.91 percent this Thursday, for the 30-year fixed term loan. A survey reveals that borrowers with credit who can make a down payment of 20 percent could pick up a debt amount not exceeding $417,000. Any value higher than this would be categorized as jumbo loan and the rates will increase.
A look at the applications for mortgage also shows that the numbers were up by 3.2 percent from the first week of November. However, on finer inspection it is disclosed that the refinancing made up 71.5 percent of the loans applied for this week. Overall, the refinance loan application rose by 11.3 percent while the loan for purchase actually went down by 11.7 percent.
