According to Mark Calabria, director of financial regulation studies at the Cato Institute, data collected by Lender Processing Service (LPS) reveals that for the first time, more than half of the borrowers in foreclosure have been in foreclosure previously. Writing in FinanceTownhall, Calabria says while first-time foreclosures have been falling since 2009, foreclosures overall are rising because of borrowers who have been delinquent for years. The data also reveal the average time to foreclosure in Chicago, for example, is over 1,000 days. States that require a judicial process for the procedure have the highest rate of repeat foreclosures. He concludes staving off foreclosure makes the matter worse. “Had these borrowers finished the foreclosure process the first time around, housing prices would have adjusted quicker and the housing market would have been on the road to recovery quicker. These families also would not have been stuck in “limbo” and would have been able to move on with their lives,” he says. MHProNews has learned LPS provides mortgage and consumer loan processing and settlement services, and loan performance analytics for the real estate industry and government offices.
