Maelstrom in Real Estate

Maybe the maelstrom in real estate is starting to wear itself out and wind down. I sure hope so and I’ll bet many of my seller clients feel the same way. In an article dated today, Monica Chen with the “Durham Herald Sun,” writes on Durham County North Carolina foreclosures.

According to the NC Administrate Office of the courts; Durham County had 446 foreclosure starts from June through August 2010. This is down from 508 for the summer of 2009. Still the news is not rosy, 446 is a lot of foreclosed home and a lot of people moving from ownership into leasehold. Although Durham’s unemployment rate of 7.6 percent is below the sate wide level of 9.7 percent, there are still a lot of unemployed and underemployed people in our market.

The Herald Sun article further asserts from sources with the Mortgage Foreclosure Defense Project for Legal Aid of North Carolina that current sub-prime lending practices are affecting current foreclosure rates. HUH???? The Herald Sun article points to statistics that are four years old and two years old, kind of destroying the article’s credibility….these are not current lending practices; let’s call them…dated. The Herald does state that there has been a drop in sub-prime lending practices, this is true; there has been a drop in ALL lending practices from all banks.

So, with foreclosure rates starting to decline perhaps we’ll see a market return to stable real estate market.