Thursday, November 10, 2011

Nevada foreclosure filings drop after new law

Posted for www.miamiforrussian.com

Nevada foreclosure filings drop after new law
LAS VEGAS – Nov. 10, 2011 – Foreclosure filings in Nevada’s hard-hit housing market have slowed sharply after the state enacted a law that toughened the foreclosure process.

The numbers speak for themselves: A little more than 600 default notices, the first step in processing foreclosures, were filed against homeowners through Oct. 25 in two of Nevada’s most populated counties compared to 5,360 the month prior – an 88 percent decrease, according to ForeclosureRadar.com.

A new law, which took effect Oct. 1, cracks down on “robo-signing” while also making it a felony for making false representations regarding the real estate title.

Nevada has consistently had one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country since the housing bubble. But some real estate agents say the new law may prevent clearing the glut of foreclosed homes and will stall the market there. For example, they say that in markets such as Las Vegas, foreclosures actually have been among the fastest-selling properties and accounted for half of all home sales during the third quarter.

“It leaves this shadow,” Sean O’Toole, president of ForeclosureRadar, told The Wall Street Journal. “If you’re a buyer, and you don’t know when or how that market’s going to clear, it’s not going to leave you a lot of confidence in investing in that area.”

But advocates to the new law say that in order to truly repair the housing market, “we need to make sure foreclosures are done properly,” Tisha Black Chernine, a Las Vegas real estate lawyer who helped draft the Nevada bill, told The Wall Street Journal. “People taking title pursuant to a bad foreclosure run the risk of having no title at all.”

Source: “Nevada Foreclosure Filings Dry Up After ‘Robo-Signing’ Law,” The Wall Street Journal (Nov. 7, 2011)

© Copyright 2011 INFORMATION, INC. Bethesda, MD (301) 215-4688

No comments:

Post a Comment