Short Sales in the Media

Here's a recent post in the New York Times



Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times
Sharay Hayes is hoping that a short sale of his town house in Harlem will help him get out from under. It’s now in contract.
In the months after the Lehman Brothers crash, most of the short-sale action was in the boroughs outside of Manhattan and in the suburbs. This year, however, short sales appear to be picking up in Manhattan, real estate and mortgage brokers say.


A recent search of sales listings found almost 20 advertised short sales, and that did not include short sales disguised with euphemistic terms like “owner must sell.” The advertised short sales range from a $250,000 two-bedroom on the Upper East Side to a $2 million three-bedroom designed by Philippe Starck in the financial district. They include town houses, co-ops, condops and condos.


And the number of short sales, in which a home sells for less than the amount owed on the mortgage, will most likely continue to grow. The number of lis pendens filings — a first step in the foreclosure process for houses and condos — doubled in 2009 in Manhattan, to 724 from 334 in 2008; this year, 382 had been filed by the end of June, according to the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy of New York University.


“Short sales are happening and they’re all over the map,” said Melissa Cohn, the president of the Manhattan Mortgage Company. “We’re seeing multimillion-dollar foreclosures and short sales that no one ever anticipated in New York City.”


Jonathan J. Miller, the president of the appraisal firm Miller Samuel and a market analyst, said that 2010 might well be dubbed the Year of the Short Sale nationally. “A short sale is going to be the only way for many people who bought at the peak and who are now underwater to move on with their lives if they have to relocate or downsize,” he said.


Short sales are a gentler alternative to foreclosure for both sellers and lenders. “Compared to a foreclosure, a short sale generally allows an easier transition for the borrower, less impact on their credit history, and larger net proceeds to the loan’s owner,” said Tom Kelly, a spokesman for JPMorgan Chase, adding that Chase encourages borrowers who are unable to keep their homes to consider short sales.