Aundrea Beach-Greco Mortgage Blog

The Foreclosure Moratorium: What It Means to You, Homebuyers and the Future!
10.27.10

A lot of people around the country have questions about the current foreclosure crisis and moratorium – and they’re wondering what it means to the industry as well as to homebuyers.

Let us begin with a simple, but hopefully obvious observation: this is totally new ground for everyone. No one can be sure what the impact of the foreclosure situation will be, whether affected by a moratorium or allowed to run its natural course.

Having said that, here are a few things we think merit consideration if the issue is weighing on your mind:

• The measurable impact will be localized.
• The overall impact in the short term will be noise and anxiety for realtors, sellers and buyers caused by the uncertainty.
• The overall impact in the long term and on a broad scale will become a memory fairly quickly once the market is allowed to take its natural course of dealing with the inventory for sale.
• In the short term, prices in very localized markets may actually increase for the inventory that is not part of a moratorium.
• There is nothing any one of us can do about the day-to-day impact, so we need to look for the upside that we can control or at least influence.
• Low interest rates and low prices can only serve to boost the market over time, so patience and planning will be the key to those of us who want to be active in this segment of the market.
• Real Estate agents can continue to “work” the market and be the selected agent for when the moratorium does stop.
• Now is the time to evaluate how the foreclosure market plays into your business plan. If foreclosures are a material part of your revenue, then do the research in your geographic area, estimate the impact on inventory and establish adjusted goals based timing or volume.
• If foreclosures are not a material portion of your book of business you probably will feel no measurable short-term impact or you may want to consider if they merit attention now.
• Fight back against initiatives such as the bill being advanced by Rep. Dennis Cardoza in CA attempting to promote basically “free” refinances for all mortgage owned by one of the GSE.

Regardless of the impact of the foreclosure process with or without the impact of large-scale or local moratoria, the fact is that we are not able to turn the tide on this aspect of the market – so we should focus on the things we can influence.

Staying focused on things you may be able to change is a much healthier use of your time – and if enough of us act on the positive aspects of the turnaround that we can control, we may actually improve the long-term opportunity to ward off a repeat of the kind of negative event we are suffering from due to the present foreclosure problems.

Focus on your business plan. Focus on the mid-term elections and getting the people in office who offer you the opportunity to control your own future.

The foreclosure problem will clearly “hurt” millions at the individual level. But, as a market event, the chaos produced by the problem can offer you unforeseen opportunities if you simply consider the implications, build them into your plan and then execute. Beyond those actually in foreclosure, the people who will be hurt by this national problem will be those who don’t act and create their own outcome. 

After all, one thing is fairly certain…since the issue is procedural, the lenders will resume the process eventually, homes will be back on the market, buyers will return to take advantage of the low interest and low prices, and lenders will be there to process the mortgage applications.

Recently, executives at the National Association of Realtors released an informative video discussion on this topic. You may want to watch this 6-minute video - It may offer insight about how this issue impacts you.

I enjoy being a helpful resource who’s invests in your success.

Sincerely,
The Beach-Greco Team
Aundrea Beach-Greco
Mortgage Advisor, CMP, CMPS
702-326-7866
info@aundreabeach.com