Brevard County Foreclosures Not the Best Solution

Feds say Brevard County foreclosure is not the best solution

More than four years into the housing crisis, and after millions
of Americans have lost their homes, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben
Bernanke is finally taking a stand. Bernanke sent a Federal
Reserve paper to the leaders of the House of Representatives’
Committee on Financial Services arguing that relying heavily on
foreclosures to deal with mortgage borrowers that can’t meet
their obligations is “costly and inefficient” for the housing
market because they can lead to deteriorating homes and weigh on
the property values in the surrounding community. Instead, the
paper encourages lenders to “aggressively” pursue loan
modifications and for servicers to be given more incentives to
seek alternatives to foreclosure. Brevard Foreclosures “can result in
‘deadweight losses,’ or costs that do not benefit anyone,
including the neglect and deterioration of properties that often
sit vacant for months (or even years) and the associated negative
effects on neighborhoods,” the paper said. “These deadweight
losses compound the losses that households and creditors already
bear and can result in further downward pressure on house
prices.”

The paper mirrors findings from regional Fed banks indicating
that foreclosures can be detrimental to more Americans than just
those who are losing their homes. Properties that are occupied,
but in foreclosure, drive down the surrounding property values
twice as much as vacant properties, an October study from the
Cleveland Federal Reserve found. And with millions of foreclosed
properties already in the pipeline, the foreclosure process is
already taking longer than in recent memory — a situation that
may only be exacerbated if lenders don’t take the Fed’s advice.
The average foreclosure process now takes 674 days, almost triple
the time necessary in 2007.