Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are being accused by some housing analysts as purposely keeping some foreclosures off the market as the mortgage giants wait for housing prices to pick up more across the country, HousingWire reports.
About half of the foreclosed homes that Fannie Mae owns are on the market or being prepared to be listed soon. However, the other 47 percent of Fannie’s REO inventory is sitting in limbo and not on the market.
Housing groups, including the National Association of REALTORS®, are calling on officials to release more of their REOs in markets where inventories of for-sale homes have shrank.
However, Fannie says some of its inventory have not been listed yet because of some states’ slower foreclosure processes and because some home owners have not yet been evicted and are still occupying some homes in default. Also, about 8 percent of its inventory is being rented in Fannie’s Tenant in Place or Deed for Lease programs, a pilot program that rents homes back to the borrower.
“The properties we own are either on the market or in the process of being brought to market,” a Fannie spokesman told HousingWire. “Fannie Mae’s goal is to sell HomePath properties at market competitive rates as quickly as we can so that neighborhoods stabilize and recover.”
Source: “Nearly Half of Fannie Mae REO Unable to Reach Market,” HousingWire (Aug. 22, 2012)
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