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September Foreclosures Hold Steady
by Jon Greenberg on
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The phrase of the day from the NH Housing Finance Authority is the state "is bouncing along the bottom" of the downturn in the housing market. They actually call the collapse of prices a "correction" but I say, call a spade a spade.
The number of foreclosures deeds in September was 287 -- 11% more than in September 2008. The number of foreclosure auction notices, a step that precedes the final act of foreclosure, was 756. That's 5% higher than the month before and 12% higher than a year ago. Not good news.
However, looking at the overall trend for the year, the NHHFA predicts the number of foreclosures will probably be a few percent less than in 2008.
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Declining home prices continue to help residential sales in New Hampshire. Prices are down about 11 percent and sales for the year are a hair above what they were in 2008.
Real estate agents are pleased with the October numbers. After a grim period stretching from last fall to early spring, there’s been a consistent if modest upward trend. The number of homes sold last month rose compared to this September and compared to October a year ago. The data come from the New Hampshire Association of Realtors.
The state unemployment rate fell 4-tenths of a percent in October.
Unemployment dropped to 6.8 percent. The decline caught most analysts by surprise. Usually, when the national rate rises, as it did, so does the state’s.
Economist Annette Nielsen with the labor market information bureau says the job growth is real. The rate is not due to lots of people dropping out of the labor force. But Nielsen takes a cautious view.
Nielsen: "I would like to see a couple of months before I would definitely say this is what’s going on."
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