Massachusetts foreclosure ruling could boost home prices
01/11/2011
By Credit.com Staff
When consumers are allowed to return to homes they were forced by their lenders to vacate, they may be in a better position to maintain their mortgage payments than they were when they were served a foreclosure notice, according to a report from the New York Times. In addition, home values are often depressed in a neighborhood with a number of vacant properties, so when homeowners return to them, it may cause prices to bounce back.
"Anything that buys time, that reduces the supply of houses coming onto the market, is helpful," Karl Guntermann, a professor of real estate finance at Arizona State University, told the newspaper.
Around the country, many cities have been hit hard by the foreclosure crisis, and recent research found that home values in those areas most affected by the problem may not fully recover for decades.
