One Million Foreclosures...Is That A Lot?

I just got done reading an article that was talking about that there was one million foreclosures last year in the United States. Is that a lot of homes to be lost? Well it all depends on whether you look at the glass half full or half empty. One million is a very large number. But in retrospect how is that number in comparison to the amount of homes in the United States?

Well the rest of the article mentioned that one in every 45 homes received a notice of foreclosure. That number was roughly 2.9 million households that received a notice. They just fell behind enough that the bank began the process. A lot of families were able to sell their homes through short sales, refinanced, or found better paying jobs that prevented them from foreclosing on their homes.

So, is it as bleak as the report said? Well consider that over 98% of people that own a home in the United States did NOT receive any notice of foreclosure. And out of those 2% of people that did receive a notice of foreclosure less than half of them actually had their home foreclosed on.

So, all in all less than 1% of ALL American homeowners lost their home last year to foreclosure. Yes it is still a daunting number but in relation it is really not that large of a number when you consider the amount of homeowners who did not lose their home to foreclosure.

The news report claims that foreclosures are affecting home values nationwide. But are they really? Consider that foreclosures account for less than 30% of all sales last year in the United States. The home values on these homes is lower than the average home owner is probably looking to sell their home for. But what is the condition of the home? The banks are taking into account the repairs needed to get the home back to the standards the average homeowner is sellign their home for....making that number relative.

Dave diCecco
Realtor/Broker
www.davedicecco.com