Distressed Properties in 2012

February 07, 2012

Distressed Properties in 2012

State of Distressed Properties in 2012

Predictions are always hard to make and distressed sales are no different. Factors like home values, employment, and consumer confidence will all be determinants of the rising or falling housing market. That is the only thing that is certain.

“Foreclosures aren’t going away right now,” says Andy Firoved, CEO of CounselorDirect, a technology company that specializes in automating processes for various government foreclosure-prevention programs. “We’re going to have a certain level. The question is, how many?”

These are the predictions made by Firoved:

#1-Government home ownership assistance programs will get more effective.

The goal of helping home owners has hit every road block from job losses to overly bureaucratic processes. In contrast, newer initiatives such as the “Hardest Hit” mortgage assistance programs and the revamped Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP), will be able to dig in more due to the plans of better promotions and administration.

“The word is getting out, and people are starting to get assistance,” Fivored says. “These programs are starting to find higher-level efficiencies as well.”

#2-The amount of evictions will stay the same or go down.

Banks are hesitant to push foreclosures and in turn evictions due to the robo-signing issue which still has not been settled. Evictions are labor-intensive, painstakingly tedious legally, and banks just don’t have the resources to evict all their borrowers. “The problem is that there are a lot of people out there who haven’t paid their mortgage in a while, and they have gotten used to it,” he says. Although “the party’s got to stop at some point,” Fivored is guessing it’ll keep going, for the most part, through 2012.

#3-Banks will get creative with REOs and delinquent home owners.

Special deals are on the horizon. Leasing foreclosed and bank owned home to former owners or allowing foreclosed-on and delinquent borrowers to continue living in homes without making payments for a short term are the type of scenarios on the table because banks want properties to be maintained in order to hold their resale value high.