Are Increasing Numbers of Homeowners Withholding Their Mortgage Payments?
By George W. Mantor
RISMEDIA, June 9, 2009-One of the reasons that it is hard to get a handle on the depths of the foreclosure crisis is that much of the information is hidden beneath the surface, like an iceberg. We are seeing only a small part of what may turn out to be a much bigger disaster than ever imagined because so much is hidden from view. And so, we are left to wonder-is the worst yet to come?
There is, for example, wide speculation that banks have been holding back significant numbers of REO properties in order not to flood the market.
A cursory review of local tax records suggests that there are far more properties in default than there are in either the auction or bank owned phase. Are these temporary defaults that will ultimately be cured, or are these the first waves of what alarmists like to call the Tsunami? Are the majority of these early stage defaults inevitably going to make their way to auction?
I think things may be sustainable this summer but the coming winter is going to be rough I suspect. I fully expected temporary summer jobs to stall the unemployment trend but that will end before Christmas and we’ll back on track for meltdown. and, like you said, who knows what’s really going on with housing especially considering the millions of newly unemployed Americans created this spring? I see a stock market doing “OK” but I see it being manipulated and it becomes more and more evident that the stock market is pretty well disconnected from Main Street, USA realities.
“A cursory review of local tax records suggests that there are far more properties in default than there are in either the auction or bank owned phase. Are these temporary defaults that will ultimately be cured, or are these the first waves of what alarmists like to call the Tsunami? Are the majority of these early stage defaults inevitably going to make their way to auction?”
Either they are waiting for their bailout from the ‘one they have been waiting for’ or they are just unemployed and struggling. Or a combination of the two.