Here's a piece of bright news on this otherwise gloomy economic week.Foreclosures are down. Again. For the sixth month in a row.
The number of houses in the later stages of the foreclosure process in metro St. Louis fell 41percent in July, according to data firm RealtyTrac. They recorded 1,234 filings, the second slowest month here in three years. It's the fourth straight month of at least a 20 percent year over-year decline, and for 2011 as a whole, filings here are down 22.4 percent.
For a few months, RealtyTrac suspected most of the slowdown was because of processing delays by banks, as lenders made sure they dotted every 'i' in the wake of last fall's "robo signing" scandals. Now, though, they think the many efforts to help troubled borrowers stay in their houses may, finally, be paying off.
The delays, said Chief Executive James Saccaccio, plus the 'smorgasbord of national and state-level foreclosure prevention efforts ... may be allowing more distressed homeowners to stave off foreclosure."
Until the economy turns around, he said, any such relief will be temporary. But some say the economy can't turn around until the housing market at least stabilizes. And the housing market won't stabilize until foreclosures get back to a manageable rate - which they have been doing lately. |
