3171 Surveyed Adults- 22% have problems making mortgage payments

Twenty-two percent of people with mortgages are having trouble making their payments, a new Harris Interactive poll finds. That number includes 7% who are having "a great deal of difficulty." Twenty-one percent those with mortgages believe they are in a negative-equity position.

These numbers are lower than they were a year ago, Harris Interactive explains. Those having difficulty paying off their mortgages have declined from 29% to 22%. At this time last year, 24% of those with mortgages thought they were underwater.

The modest improvements may be deceptive, Harris Interactive adds. One reason why slightly fewer people are having difficulty paying their mortgages this year is that some people who were in difficulty last year have lost their homes and no longer have mortgages.

The online poll surveyed 3,171 adults during the first full week of March. Two-thirds (66%) of all adults have mortgages on their homes - slightly lower than last year's 69%.



http://www.harrisinteractive.com/vault/HI-Harris-Poll-Mortgage-Concerns-2011-04-04.pdf

Medium US Home Price is $177,000

Prices of single-family homes rose an average of 3.6 percent during the second quarter of 2010 compared to a year earlier nationally, according to the Fiserv Case-Shiller Indexes. As of the end of June, the median U.S. home price was $177,000, as tracked by Fiserv.

Seven Million U.S. Mortgages Past Due or in Foreclosure: LPS

There are 7,018,000 mortgages in the United States that are 30 or more days delinquent or in the process of foreclosure, according to new data from Lender Processing Services (LPS). Of the more than 7 million home loans in the country currently going unpaid, 2,055,000 have already commenced foreclosure proceedings. LPS reports that 4,963,000 are in the pre-foreclosure default stages, with nearly half of these falling into the 90-plus-days delinquent bucket.

http://www.dsnews.com/articles/seven-million-us-mortgages-past-due-or-in-foreclosure-lps-2010-10-15

REPORT: U.S. HOUSEHOLD INCOME FALLS FOR SECOND STRAIGHT YEAR

The Census Bureau reported today that U.S. median household income fell 3 percent in 2009 to $50,221, Bloomberg News reported today. Maryland had the highest income for a fourth consecutive year, at $69,272, even as its median dropped from $70,545 in 2008, the bureau said in its 2009 American Community Survey. Mississippi had the lowest for at least the fifth straight year, at $36,646. The American Community Survey data is used to help determine the annual distribution of more than $400 billion in federal and state funds, the bureau said.

In related news, the Census Bureau also reported that the income gap between the richest and poorest Americans grew last year to its widest amount on record, the Associated Press reported today. The top-earning 20 percent of Americans — those making more than $100,000 each year — received 49.4 percent of all income generated in the U.S., compared with the 3.4 percent earned by those below the poverty line, according to newly released Census figures. That ratio of 14.5-to-1 was an increase from 13.6 in 2008 and nearly double a low of 7.69 in 1968. A different measure, the international Gini index, found current U.S. income inequality to be at its highest level since the Census Bureau began tracking household income in 1967. The U.S. also has the greatest disparity among Western industrialized nations.

National Vacancy Rates

The homeownership rate was 66.9% in the second quarter, according to new data from the U.S. Department of Commerce's Census Bureau. The second-quarter rate was 0.5 percentage points lower than the rate recorded in the second quarter of 2009 and 0.2 percentage points lower than the rate from last quarter.


National vacancy rates remained steady, for the most part. National vacancy rates in the second quarter were 10.6% for rental housing and 2.5% for homeowner housing, according to the Census Bureau data. The rental vacancy rate was approximately the same as rates recorded in the second quarter of 2009 and last quarter. The homeowner vacancy rate was approximately the same as the second-quarter 2009 rate and 0.1 percentage point lower than the rate of 2.6% last quarter.

Approximately 85.6% of the housing units in the U.S. in the second quarter were occupied, and 14.4% were vacant. Owner-occupied housing units made up 57.3% of total housing units, while renter-occupied units made up 28.3% of the inventory.



SOURCE: U.S. Department of Commerce

http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/hvs/qtr210/files/q210press.pdf

MORE MIDDLE CLASS FILING FOR BANKRUPTCY

In its 2009 Annual Consumer Bankruptcy Demographics Report released last month, the Institute for Financial Literacy (IFL) found greater percentages of Americans 55 and older filing for bankruptcy. The report also found a rise in filings among Americans who are earning $60,000 or more, are married and have either a bachelor's or graduate degree. In comparison to its previous reports, the IFL found declines in the percentage of Americans ages 18-44 filing for bankruptcy. "Taken collectively, these individually measured demographic factors indicate that the 2008-2009 Great Recession is noticeably shifting more 'middle class' Americans into bankruptcy," according to the report. The report examined a sampling of demographic information gathered during the full year of demographic information covering the period from Jan. 1, 2009, through Dec. 31, 2009. The results are compared to the findings from 2008.


http://www.financiallit.org/PDF/2009_Demographics_Report.pdf

Bankruptcy Filings On The Rise

It's tough out there -- no jobs, home values plummeting -- and Americans are reacting by heading to bankruptcy court.

Bankruptcy filings surged 14% during the first half of 2010, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute. Filings totaled 770,117 through June, compared to 675,351 during the same period last year.

In 2005, bankruptcy filings totaled more than 2 million. It is expected that there will be more than 1.6 million new bankruptcy filings by the end of 2010. The institute also said that bankruptcies totaled 126,270 in June, a jump of 8.5% from the same month in 2009, when they totaled 116,365.

There are 15 million Americans who are looking for work. And, the overall unemployment rate, which includes both those who are actively looking for work and those who are not, registered at 16.5 percent. As the number of unemployed workers swell, many Americans are anxious for the immediate passage of the unemployment extension 2010 bill.

The American Bankruptcy Institute, on the other hand, revealed that consumer bankruptcy filings for January to June increased by 14 percent over the same period last year. 770,117 consumer bankruptcy filings were registered during the first six months of 2010, which marks the highest number of filings since the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act was enacted five years ago to curb the increase in filings.


The relationship between unemployment rate and the rate of bankruptcy filings is best demonstrated in Nevada. Nevada has the highest unemployment rate in the country (adjusting for households located in the state) and it alshttp://all247news.com/wp-admin/post-new.php#o registered more than double the national consumer bankruptcy filing rate. Nevada registered 15,000 filings per million households compared to the 6,800 filings per million households average at the national level.

Both bankruptcy and jobs statistics do not augur well to unemployed Americans most of whom are pinning their hopes on Congress to pass legislation on the $33.9 billion unemployment extension 2010 bill.

Bankruptcy on the Rise

Across the nation, 770,117 consumers, or one in 150 households, have filed, a 14 percent increase from a year earlier, according to figures from the National Bankruptcy Research Center. The American Bankruptcy Institute estimates there will be 1.6 million-plus bankruptcies by year's end.


Years of super-sized lifestyles on borrowed money, a depressed housing market, persistent high unemployment and stock market losses are fueling the increases. People in industries once considered secure and well-paying -- real estate agents, financial industry workers, tool-and-die makers, plumbers and chiropractors -- are filling attorneys' waiting rooms after being out of work or making do with reduced incomes for too long.

The average U.S. VantageScore is currently 749-- the average for Dallas & Miami-Ft. Lauderdale which are tide for last place out of  the 20 largest metropolitan areas is 719.
 
 

Consumer Bankruptcy Filings Up

U.S. consumer bankruptcy filings totaled 770,117 nationwide during the first six months of 2010 (Jan. 1-June 30), a 14 percent increase over the 675,351 total consumer filings during the same period a year ago.

Banks Have Recognized 60% of Expected Loan Charge-Offs: Moody’s

In its latest quarterly report on credit conditions of the U.S. banking system, Moody’s Investors Service says banks’ asset quality issues are “past the peak” but charge -offs and non-performers continue to eat away at profitability and sheer fundamentals.

Based on Moody’s market data, banks’ non-performing loans stood at 5.0 percent of total loan assets at March 31, 2010.

Moody’s says U.S. rated banks have already charged off or written-down $436 billion of loans in 2008, 2009, and the first quarter of 2010. That leaves another $307 billion to reach the rating agency’s full estimate of $744 billion of loan charge-offs from 2008 through 2011.

In aggregate, the banks have recognized 60 percent of Moody’s estimated total charge-offs and 65 percent of estimated residential mortgage losses, but only 45 percent of projected commercial real estate losses.

In the first quarter of this year, the banking industry’s collective annualized net charge-offs came to 3.3 percent of loans, versus 3.6 percent of loans in the fourth quarter of 2009, Moody’s said. Despite two consecutive quarters of improvement in charge-offs, the ratings agency notes that the figures still remain near historic highs, dating back to the Great Depression.

jacksonville

U.S. Cities With The Most Underwater Mortgages


Topics:Real Estate
Mortgages

By: Paul Toscano , Producer, CNBC.com
10 May 2010
10:45 AM ET
Source: Zillow.com

For individual homeowners, being “underwater” on a mortgage – when a home is worth less than outstanding debt, or has “negative equity” – is one of the worst positions to be in, short of foreclosure. Zillow.com, a firm that compiles US real estate and mortgage information, has put together a list of the 156 largest metro areas that includes statistics on median home values, market changes and the proportion of homes with negative equity.Included in the data is the “Zillow Home Values Index,” which represents the median measure of home valuations. According to Zillow’s newest report, the current median US home price is $204,900, down 6.82% year-over-year. More than one in five - 23.3% - of US homes are underwater, which is up slightly from 23% from Q2 2009, according to Zillow. So, which metro areas have the highest proportion of homes underwater? Click ahead for the results. By Paul ToscanoPosted 10 May 2010.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/3705524­5?slide=2- Jax is no 15 with 49.1% underwater representing 127,807 homes and this is a low guess b/c it is Zillow/industry numbers.

Sout Florida Bankruptcy Filings

The number of businesses filing for bankruptcy in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties continued to eclipse last year’s numbers by a large margin in May – 60 percent higher, year-over-year – but dipped slightly compared to April, according to preliminary statistics from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court.


In the three-county area, personal bankruptcy filings were up 35 percent to 2,860 from 2,112 in May 2009, but down 2 percent compared to April.

The number of business bankruptcies for the three counties was up 60 percent in May, to 131 cases from 82 a year earlier.

Unemployment

Unemployment rates fell in April for more than 90 percent of the nation's 372 largest metro areas as hiring picked up around the country.   The Labor Department says the jobless rate dropped in 346 areas last month. It rose in only 12 and remained flat in 14.

That's much better than March, when unemployment fell in 257 areas and rose in 89.

Much of the improvement was seen in Midwestern regions with significant manufacturing operations. Manufacturers, who added 44,000 jobs nationwide in April, are benefiting from increasing overseas sales and efforts by retailers and other U.S. companies to restock their warehouses.

For example, Monroe, Mich., near Detroit, saw its unemployment rate fall to 13.4 percent in April from 16 percent in March. Joblessness in Longview, Washington, which hosts several paper and packaging makers, dropped to 8.5 percent from 10.1 percent. And unemployment in Anderson, S.C., which is home to many auto parts companies, fell to 10.7 percent from 12.3 percent.

Stats

The 136,142 consumer bankruptcies filed in May represented a 9 percent increase nationwide over the 124,838 filings recorded in May 2009, according to ABI, relying on data from the National Bankruptcy Research Center.

Cool Chart

http://www.creditslips.org/creditslips/bankruptcy_data/

Bankrupptcy Filings Up

U.S. bankruptcy filings resumed their upward climb in the first quarter, nearly equaling their highest level since 2005, as high unemployment and a still-strained housing market squeezed consumers.


There were 388,148 filings between January and September, up 17 percent from 330,394 a year earlier, according to data released Friday by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. Consumer filings rose 18 percent to 373,541, while business filings edged up 2 percent to 14,607.

Filings also rose 4 percent from last year's fourth quarter, the government data show. That had been the first period with a quarter-to-quarter drop in filings since 2006.

Bankruptcy Filings Continue to Increase

Statistics thanks to the Bankruptcy Data Project:
http://bdp.law.harvard.edu/

                2008           2009           %                      2010          %
 
Jan           70,300       89,000       27%            102,600     15%
 
Feb          79,500      102,000        28%            117,800    15%

March      90,400      131,000       45%             159,200    22%

April         93,200     128,700       38%             146,200    14%

After steadily increasing for 12 consecutive quarters, the national mortgage loan delinquency rate—the ratio of borrowers 60 or more days past due on their mortgage—dipped down to 6.77 percent in the first quarter of this year, according to data released Monday by TransUnion.



This statistic, which is traditionally seen as a precursor to foreclosure, reflects a 1.74 percent decline from the previous quarter’s 6.89 percent average. However, on a year-over-year basis, mortgage borrower delinquency was still up approximately 30 percent from 5.22 percent in the first quarter of 2009.


This statistic, which is traditionally seen as a precursor to foreclosure, reflects a 1.74 percent decline from the previous quarter’s 6.89 percent average. However, on a year-over-year basis, mortgage borrower delinquency was still up approximately 30 percent from 5.22 percent in the first quarter of 2009.

TransUnion said delinquency rates in the first quarter continued to be the highest in Nevada (15.98 percent) and Florida (14.65 percent). And the lowest rates of delinquency were found once again in North Dakota (1.76 percent), South Dakota (2.44 percent), and Nebraska (2.68 percent.)

U.S. Bank Failures Hit 68 in 2010

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said that state regulators closed banks in Florida, Minnesota, Arizona and California on Friday, bringing to 68 the number of banks that have failed so far this year.

Personal bankruptcies Increase in 2010

The American Bankruptcy Institute says that bankruptcies declined slightly between March and April … but remain 15 percent higher than last year. And personal bankruptcy filings for the first four months of the year are 17 percent higher in 2010 than in 2009, meaning that 2010 is on track to have the highest number of personal bankruptcies since 2005, when Congress made it harder to qualify for one.