Foreclosure Filings Decline as Holiday Moratorium Extends Delays
Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. foreclosure filings fell last month as delinquent homeowners got a holiday break, RealtyTrac Inc. reported.
A total of 224,394 properties received notices of default, auction or repossession, down 14 percent from a year earlier, the Irvine, California-based data seller said today in a report. One in 579 U.S. households got a filing, compared with one in 563 in October, a decline partly the result of a holiday eviction moratorium by mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, said RealtyTrac Chief Executive Officer James J. Saccacio.
The U.S. housing market must digest more than 14 million distressed properties -- 1.5 million homes in the foreclosure process, 3.5 million with delinquent mortgages and at least 10 million “underwater” properties, whose owners owe more than the homes are worth -- before the foreclosure crisis will subside, according to RealtyTrac.
“The python took a break -- the pig is still in there,” Saccacio said in a telephone interview.
Of the 280 units, 272 were acquired by PLPH on January 27 at the conclusion of the bankruptcy sale and auction process. The other eight were sold previous as condominiums to individual owners. Currently, about 65 percent of the units in Park Lafayette