Monday, March 29, 2010

How to fix this mess

Foreclosure IS the cure, not the problem!





I read this over at the Irvine Housing Blog,

A 600% increase in foreclosures

I attended a local Building Industry Association conference on Friday 26 March 2010. The west coast manager of real estate owned, Senior Vice President Ken Gaitan, stated that Bank of America, which currently forecloses on 7,500 homes a month nationally, will increase that number to 45,000 homes per month by December of 2010.

After his surprising statement, two questioners from the audience asked questions to verify the numbers.

Bank of America is projecting a 600% increase in its already large number of monthly foreclosures.

This isn't unsubstantiated rumor; this comes straight from one of the most powerful men in Bank of America's OREO department (yes, that really is what they call it). It appears they have too many properties already.

3 comments:

Tyrone said...

Hmmmmm... shouldn't make anyone too confident about that recent house purchase, should it?

Complete all the foreclosures, devalue the currency, allow gold to price freely, and let's get this finished so we can get back to a normal, functioning economy.

golfer_X said...

Yes, but that's just one lender! from 7500/mo to 45,000/mo by the end of the year. I'll beleive it when I see it!

golfer_X said...

Home prices in most of the IE are pretty affordable. The problem is there is no inventory. 2/3 of the inventory is is not sell-able. It's either priced delusionally or it's a short sale scam trying to string a lender along or it's just a wreck. All the buyers are trying to get the remaining 25% and a majority of those are all after the same few low priced properties. Now LA and OC prices are still bordering on ridiculous. I look at the 1200 s/f 1950s tract home I lived in in Torrance selling for $700k and I just laugh. That's a 4K/mo house payment (with 20% down) to live in an old crackerbox with one tiny bathroom. They are still miles from rental parity. You could rent the same house for $2k/mo.

Inventory is finally creeping up. Although with the tax credit ending I would expect a frenzy this month to sign a deal so it may drop back down.