| By :
Frank Patrick
Huge Amount of REO Homes Still Held By Lenders; Foreclosure Actions Up Sharply in Other Cities Across America Fitch Ratings, a global credit rating agency, now estimates that the huge "shadow inventory" of REO properties still being held by lending institutions will take at least 40 months to process and sell. With an estimated 7.5 million REO homes yet to be listed, it will take some time for major banks to liquidate these properties. Of all the family home loans JPMorgan Chase holds, for example, one out of every thirteen are in foreclosure today for a total worth of $20 billion. Currently, it takes roughly 18 months for an REO home to be processed and resold, from the date of the last mortgage payment. These numbers all but guarantee that REO listings will continue to account for a huge chunk of all real estate sales for at least the next three to four years. A new spike in foreclosures will also add considerably to the overall REO inventory. Ongoing foreclosure actions are beginning to experience big jumps in other areas across America. While most of the attention has gone to Florida, California, Nevada and Arizona - the "big four" which have experienced the biggest surge in REO properties over the past few years - other cities and states are suddenly seeing dramatic increases. In the third quarter of 2010, foreclosure actions (which include everything from default notices to actual bank repossessions) rose in 65 percent of the country's top 200 housing markets. Seattle saw a 71 percent jump, Chicago a 35 percent jump and other cities such as Houston and Atlanta also saw double-digit increases. When it came to actual bank repossessions, Boise, Idaho saw a 71 percent jump and Philadelphia saw a 38 percent rise. Unemployment seems to be driving these new numbers - and it's also affecting the number of prime mortgage delinquencies in recent months, which are also up sharply. The managing director of the applied analytics division at Lender Processing Services, Kyle Lundstedt, said current mortgage delinquencies are above 7 million. Loan modifications aren't helping distressed homeowners either. It was recently reported that, of the roughly 16,000 mortgage modifications done on Freddie Mac loans in the second quarter of 2009, 42% had fallen back into delinquency 12 months after the workout. Which explains why Freddie Mac suffered a two and a half billion dollar loss in the third quarter and has requested another $100 million from the U.S. Treasury. REO agents, brokers and other professionals skilled in this specialized field will continue to be desperately needed as this segment of the real estate market continues to dominate in the coming months.
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