How Bad Is The Housing Market ‘Crisis?’
March 8, 2008 | Filed Under Real Estate News, Real Estate Trends and Statistics, Boston Real Estate
It seems no one can avoid the negative news surrounding the real estate industry. But is the housing market really as bad as people think?
After analyzing recent foreclosure numbers from RealtyTrac and information from various government agencies, Bankrate.com and MSN Money personal finance columnist Scott Burns both conclude that the data offers some reassuring news. The national foreclosure rate did climb 79 percent between December 2006 and December 2007, with foreclosures affecting 1.2 million properties last year. But that’s less than 1 percent of all U.S. households, which number approximately 128 million, Bankrate.com reports.
Burns notes that in the top 100 housing markets, the foreclosure rate is slightly higher at 1.38 percent. But if you rank-ordered the top 100 housing markets, only 34 had foreclosure rates above the group average and 51 areas had rates of 1 percent or less.
Some analysts have warned that the number of adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) that are scheduled to reset this year or next year could have a big impact on the overall housing market. Bankrate.com reports that the problem will not be widespread. Approximately 1.3 million of the 3.7 million prime ARMs (35 percent) and 2 million of the 2.1 million subprime ARMs (92 percent) are scheduled to reset this year or next year. But the total number of ARM resets amounts to only 3.3 million loans, affecting just 2.6 percent of U.S. households.
In our 2007 Year End Boston Real Estate Market Report we saw a value increase in the Boston market, especially in Boston’s prime neighborhoods Back Bay, Beacon Hill, South End and Downtown.
Comments
4 Responses to “How Bad Is The Housing Market ‘Crisis?’”
Got something to say?
As Boston Real Estate professionals, our mission is to provide you with the best home-buying or home-selling experience in Boston. Search MA properties through MLS on our website, www.bushari.com. We pride ourselves on exceptional customer service, and look forward to sharing that service with you.
Bostonian Lofts is the premiere website for information about Boston Lofts. Read about Boston Loft Developments and how we can help you purchase or sell your Boston Loft.
We write the quarterly Boston Real Estate Market Report to help our clients better understand the real estate market in some of Boston's most popular neighborhoods. The Boston Real Estate Market Report breaks down the real estate market of each Boston neighborhood into categories based on the number of bedrooms. The report gives clients a detailed look at localized market trends. Subscribe for FREE today!
I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you.
Susan Kishner
Many think that it is not as bad as they say and many areas are okay. I am concerned with the next group of ARM resetting will they choose to walk also or will they take advantage of the numerous assist programs. I just think they should restrict how many of those ARMS can be sold in a year to not have this effect on the economy.
I also like the idea that the govermnet match peoples deposit for those in low income and get them into these foreclosed vacatnt homes if they qualify otherwise.
Probably as soon as we get thru the first phase we will be hit with another phase. Hopefully people are trying to list those homes now and sell before they have to foreclose.
What I find amazng is the percent that defaulted is such a small amount in relationship to total household loans and yet it has vertually crippled a nation and many world markets. Imagine if it were more. Would we ever recover?