The housing market may be recovering in some states, but in New Jersey, there are still problems. The percentage of homeowners that are still trying to stop foreclosure of their homes is over six percent. This may be due, at least in part, to the judicial foreclosure process since some non-judicial foreclosure states are seeing rates below two percent.
When single family homes were first mass built in the 1950’s, the number of homeowners grew 10 percent in just that decade. After that, the housing market only grew five percent over the next 50 years. So, it may not have been such a stretch to believe that there could be serious ramifications when the housing market grew another four percent from 2002 to 2006 mostly due to unregulated lending practices during those years.
Presently, the percentage of homeowners is back down to 65 percent. As a consequence of the housing bubble, by the time it’s all said and done anywhere between 10 and 20 million Americans will have lost their homes. The question becomes what will happen to all of those homes that are now vacant. Converting many of them to rentals would be a good idea, but only in the short term.
Perhaps between creating a rent-to-own market and relaxing lending criteria at least a little, many of those homes can be re-occupied. Perhaps this could even become a solution for those around the country and here in New Jersey who are still working to stop foreclosure of their home. Researching all of the possibilities, even unorthodox ones, may help in this regard.
Source: muninetguide.com, “What Have We Learned from the Great Home Real Estate Recession?” Peter Fugiel, Aug. 5, 2013
