Preforeclosure Notices Send Mixed Signals for Housing in Minnesota
On Thursday, October 27th, the Minnesota Homeownership Center released its third quarter data on the aggregate number of Preforeclosure Notices received by foreclosure counselors in the Homeownership Advisors Network. The numbers continue to show that Minnesota is slowly emerging from the foreclosure crisis, while also signaling reasons for the state to continue to make fighting foreclosures a priority: the number of preforeclosure notices received in the third quarter of 2011 signals the first uptick in quarterly notices in a year.
In the third quarter of 2011, members of the Homeownership Advisors Network received 14,586 preforeclosure notices, 23% fewer than during the same time period in 2010, but an increase of 9% from the second quarter of 2011, when 13,372 notices were received.
 |
| Click To Enlarge |
Most troubling is that 85% of the increase in notices from Q2 to Q3 came from the Twin Cities metro… with 43% of the increase coming from Hennepin County alone, which saw an increase of more than 500 preforeclosure notices. Is this a statistical outlier or the beginning of a troubling trend? The Minnesota Homeownership Center will continue to track these notices and will report on the Q4 and year-end numbers in early 2012.
The total number of preforeclosure notices received in the state of Minnesota in 2011 now exceeds 42,000:
 |
| Click To Enlarge |
Here's the breakdown for the number of preforeclosure notices received by members of the Homeownership Advisors Network in the 7-county metro area:
 |
| Click To Enlarge |
As background for new readers, Minnesota state law (MN Statute 580.021) requires that the foreclosing party provide information regarding foreclosure prevention counseling services to the mortgager (homeowner) and provide the homeowner’s name, address, and most recent known telephone number to an approved foreclosure prevention counseling agency before filing the notice of pendency.
Once the Minnesota Homeownership Center's network of foreclosure counselors receives notification from the lender/servicer/homeowners association, they then contact the homeowner, and track the number of notifications received during the month in their monthly reporting to the Center.
If you or someone you know is struggling with their mortgage payment, new programs, resources and assistance are becoming available all the time. Don’t give up… contact a foreclosure counselor that is a member of the Homeownership Advisors Network today to see if there’s help available for you to avoid foreclosure. Even if you’re not yet behind, now is the time to call. To find your local foreclosure counselor, click here.
As we saw in past years, the quarter to quarter changes can be pretty substantial, so I'm not too worried about this first uptick unless it is followed by another uptick next quarter.
ReplyDeleteSeeing 3 quarters in a row of substantially lower notices is reassuring in the fact that it has definitely reduced the inventory of foreclosures for sale today and means fewer homeless families than there could have been if trends had continued.
I'm hopeful that even if foreclosure notices climb that they will still stay below their prior peak! In this market I'll take small wins :)