Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The COVID-19 lockdown is squeezing real estate from all sides and threatens to burst the housing and mortgage bubble
Marketwatch ^ | Sept. 21, 2020 at 6:55 a.m. ET | Keith Jurow

Posted on 09/21/2020 10:17:30 AM PDT by Zhang Fei

Recently the Federal Housing Finance Administration (FHFA) — conservator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — extended the moratorium for both evictions and foreclosures until the end of the year. Many homeowners breathed a sigh of relief.

Indeed, over the past few months the number of borrowers with active forbearances has declined. But that’s no reason for optimism. The more serious matter is how many homeowners are now delinquent. By the end of 2020, several million borrowers who have received mortgage forbearance will have gone nine months without making a mortgage payment.

What impact will this have on U.S. housing and mortgage markets? Let’s start with FHA-insured loans. According to HUD’s July 2020 “Neighborhood Watch” report, 17% of 8 million insured mortgages are now delinquent. This percentage includes mortgages in forbearance as well as those not in forbearance. Hard-hit metropolitan areas include New York City with 27.2%, Miami with 24.4% and Atlanta with 21%.

Another reason for alarm is the private, non-guaranteed (non-agency) securitized mortgages that go back to the crazy bubble years and which are still active. These were the millions of sub-prime and other non-prime loans that were egregiously underwritten, many fraudulently.

At the peak of this activity in late 2007, more than 10 million of these mortgages were outstanding with a total debt of more than $2.4 trillion. As recently as early 2018, 25% of all delinquent borrowers nationwide had not made a mortgage payment in at least five years. In New York State, New Jersey and Washington, D.C., that percentage was more than 40%.

Keep in mind that these extremely high delinquency rates existed well-before the COVID-19 pandemic erupted. Since March of this year, delinquency rates for subprime mortgages reversed a 10-year decline and climbed to 23.7% in July, according to TCW’s most recent Mortgage Market

(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Extended News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: covid19; kag; maga; trump
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-44 last
To: doorgunner69
Wife and I have toyed with the idea of a home in Arizona, but the housing market there is insane. Houses in the range of interest to us get snapped up within a day or so at double the price they went for a few years ago.. Wife says the low interest rates and people getting out of Calif are to blame.

Homes were being sold so fast, we bought remotely, over the phone...Never thought I'd do that, but we had traveled from CA to AZ on several reconnaissance missions to the area that interested us. And this was 1 year prior to the China virus. We now see the only home in our area that just went up for sale, now shows "Pending" after being listed for 3 days! In fact our realtor and personal friend in CA who helped us sell there, now wants to buy a duplex or small apartment building in our area and he even remarked how the RE here has been steadily ticking up.

41 posted on 09/21/2020 1:07:24 PM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: warsaw44

ping for later.


42 posted on 09/21/2020 4:45:25 PM PDT by warsaw44
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: Mariner

Nobody wants to move just for that slightly bigger kitchen now. We have to build ourselves into inventory yet the builders know better to go full throttle again.


43 posted on 09/21/2020 6:06:37 PM PDT by Almondjoy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: saleman

https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/property-tax-assessment-nationwide-rico-scam

Tip if the iceberg IMHO


44 posted on 09/24/2020 6:18:31 AM PDT by mo ("If you understand, no explanation is needed; if you don't understand, no explanation is possible")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-44 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson