WHAT'S TRUE AND WHAT'S NOT IN 2024: UNDERSTANDING FORECLOSURE

There’s a lot of hype in the housing market about foreclosures.  Let’s break down some of its impetus.

Foreclosures are on the rise but there is little to indicate they’ll explode onto the housing scene like a bad actor in an American Horror Story, granted any foreclosure essentially impacts neighborhoods and communities negatively in the long and short run.

In fact, according to recent data published by ATTOM, a property data provider, foreclosure filings have remained lower than the pre-pandemic.  Foreclosure activity peaked above 1 million for a period beginning in 2007 and running through 2015.  In the last 3 years, from 2020 through 2023 foreclosure activity doubled but still not at levels seen from 2005 through 2019.

What kind of foreclosure is that anyway?

There are 3 Specific Types of Foreclosures:

The first type of foreclosure we’ll touch on is a Judicial Foreclosure.  This foreclosure process does allow a borrower (owner) to pay what they owe before an auction or sale of the property.  This auction or sale comes about when the lender sues the borrower (owner) for nonpayment of a mortgage and obtains a court approval to proceed to sell the borrower’s home.  This process is lengthy, and it is available in all states.

The second type of foreclosure is called Power of Sale, or Nonjudicial foreclosure.  Here the borrower (owner) is helpless to stop the foreclosure process and a lender doesn’t need a court order to sell the property at auction.  The lender is bound by state laws for proper  notification and the appropriate waiting period. This process is available in 29 states and is faster than the Judicial Foreclosure process.

This foreclosure is rare and isn’t seen as often because it is available in just a few states, CT and VT.  It requires a lender to obtain a court order that transfers ownership of the property directly to the lender without a sale or auction.  It’s what is known as a Strict Foreclosure. This type of foreclosure leaves a borrower (owner) with little time to challenge the foreclosure or redeem the property. 

Collective:  The Human Story

Helpful Humans

In a collective human community when someone faces foreclosure, neighbors try to be helpful by listening, perhaps offering encouragement, being respectful of privacy and the dignity of others. 

Foreclosure is stressful and a challenging situation, it not only affects the individual or the family, but it extends outwardly to the neighbors and community.   Offering practical assistance, reliable resources, helpful information and connecting them to local organizations may help ease anxieties relating to foreclosure and the uncertainty it may bring.

Pretending we don’t see who we see is known as turning a blind eye, it is likely better to show our neighbors compassion and solidarity. When  helping someone who is experiencing foreclosure we may unknowingly ease their burden and distress and strengthen our bonds and values. Being a good neighbor is community and community empowers a collective human spirit. 

FORECLOSURE PREVENTION:  

If you’re someone having trouble paying your mortgage payment and would like to find someone who may be able to help, there are several local resources in Las Vegas and Henderson NV, agencies that may be able to help.  There may be a silver lining and usually a solution isn't too far in the distance to be found.

Please feel free to reach out for more information on available services; you can also search online for housing counselors and/or legal professionals. 

In closing it’s quite apparent there are wishful speculators who by design wait in the wings. The home foreclosure landscape, is fraught with project developers, each with their own dream of profitability and why not, we live in a free market driven by competiton and capital.

Mindful people profit people not systems or self; Where human capital may, when acting for the good of a community, inadvertently yield a higher profit! 

The reality is the market, typically appropriate and balanced to swing her cyclical pendulum according to the period of an ascribed calculation, is predictably where you’ll find her.  

What to Know About the 3 Different Types of Foreclosure – Experian

Keeping Current Matters

Foreclosure Activity Is Still Lower than the Norm — West + Main (westandmain.co)

What Are the Types of Foreclosure? | Zillow

Foreclosure Process/U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) | HUD.gov / U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

Avoid foreclosure | USAGov