What does the foreclosure crisis mean to you?

Cape Coral Century 21 Birchwood Realty Rick Swift Realtor "Where your new home begins"
239-357-1844 http://www.rickswift.com/ http://www.rickswift.listingbook.com/


By M.P. MCQUEEN, MARY PILON and JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG
Wall Street Journal


For the vast majority of homeowners, new questions about the state of foreclosures appear to be irrelevant. Few people seem to have been wrongly thrown out of their homes, and those who have been are generally months or years behind on their mortgage payments.
But the fallout from the crisis is beginning to be felt in real-estate markets across the country, particularly in places dominated by vacation homes and investment properties. Some of the worst-hit areas could be Western ski towns, because fall is the busiest time of the year for sales.
By the Numbers

27%

Percentage of total home sales in 2009 that were second homes.

30%

Percentage of total mortgage defaults attributable to second-home and investment properties.

4.57%

Percentage of mortgages in some state of the foreclosure process, June 2010.

9.4 Months

The average amount of time from default until foreclosure proceedings begin on a "jumbo" mortgage loan.

.Real-estate salespeople in some of those places are worried. "September and October are usually the height of the selling-season for us," says Rich Armstrong, who owns the brokerage Rare Properties in Jackson Hole, Wyo. "Now we are seeing a number of what we call 'fence sitters,' people who would have leapt in even a month ago, but now are waiting on the sidelines."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303339504575566842307890662.html