Fewer foreclosures indicate healthier housing market

In 2016, there were 172 trustee sale foreclosures in Solano County. In 2011, there were 1,866 trustee sale foreclosures in Solano. This is a huge reduction and evidence that our market has recovered from the Wall Street-caused crash. In addition to this substantial decrease in foreclosure activity the level of mortgage delinquency is down dramatically. Mortgages taken over the last 5 or 6 years are performing fantastically on FHA, VA and conventional loans here in our area and home values have increased every year since the crash of 2008. I don’t have the exact numbers verified, but I would be willing to bet that Solano County had more foreclosures and short sales between 2008 and 2012 than there were over the previous 60 years combined. Things are back to normal in our real estate market. People that have normal financial problems today can now escape and extricate themselves from their housing debt by selling their house. Families that are dealing with divorce can actually sell the home and split the equity or one of the spouses can buy out the other now that home equity has returned to their house. Folks that suffer tragedies like death, disability or job loss can now sell their home and move down to a more affordable home or move out to a more affordable area rather than suffer the pain of a foreclosure. This improvement in our local economy, unemployment and mortgage delinquency has made private mortgage insurance more affordable. PMI rates have come down substantially over the last few years, especially for the higher FICO score and higher income borrowers. FHA–HUD mortgage insurance should be coming down soon and this will help the mid-level FICO score and low to moderate income buyers here in our middle class-blue collar market. A significant reduction in FHA mortgage insurance was announced in early January but was then rescinded two weeks later by HUD secretary Dr. Ben Carson. We hope FHA mortgage insurance costs will come down now that mortgage delinquency and foreclosures have improved because a lot of the middle class needs FHA to achieve home ownership.