RealNewsWellington: August 2009

Saturday, August 29, 2009

280 Mortgagee sales from 7000...Hardly a flood!

If you treble a very small number, it is still small

I cant get excited about this. Its about 4 % of all sales

I know around Wellington of numerous investors waiting for good buys. They complain about the virtual absense of stock. On the other hand I know of very few Morgagee sales.

Anyway, heres the report.

More and more New Zealanders are being forced out of their homes as mortgagee sales hit an historic high, according to new statistics released today.
Terralink International said June's figures showed registered mortgagee sales, had tripled compared to the same period last year, up to 289 from 98.
The company's managing director Mike Donald said the figures showed property owners in provincial towns were now beginning to be hit harder by mortgagee sales.
"In the North Island, Hawke's Bay, Taranaki and Manawatu all experienced big increases in mortgagee sales.
"In the South Island mortgagee sales in Otago continue to grow, where Queenstown hit particularly hard."
Mr Donald said Auckland had the highest number of mortgagee sales in June, 112, up from 109 in May.
But Auckland's contribution to the country's total was down from 44 percent of the national total in May, to 38 percent of the total in June.
The number of mortgagee sales in Hawke's Bay was up 800 percent year-on-year.
Mr Donald said while business commentators were beginning to speculate that the worst of the economic recession was over, the downturn of the past 12 months was still catching up with those who had overstretched themselves with mortgages.
"Many New Zealanders aren't out of the woods yet and it will be a long time before they will be.
"The job losses keep coming and the culmination of months of financial strain mean many Kiwis have exhausted their options for meeting mortgage payments.
"In the United States the recession had seen around 1 million foreclosures and commentators expect there will be another 2 million to follow.
"We expect that we will experience the same type of lag in New Zealand and there will be more mortgagee sales in the coming year."

Why would we expect the same, when our banks are sound, and did not get involved in Sub Prime lending? Surely its just a sign of a tough job and business market?