As the Housing Market Booms, Millions of Americans Miss Mortgage Payments

Mortgage delinquency rates are higher now than anytime in the past 20 years, including the Great Recession. It is predicted that 2 million mortgages will go into default soon. This coincides with rapidly rising home prices, sales volumes, and dropping interest rates. According to Forbes, 6 million Americans missed a mortgage or rent payment just in September. To top it all off, COVID-19 cases are increasing at an unprecedented rate. And from the legal standpoint, the pandemic has created its own slew of court issues.

These are the views that may be derived from governmental data and other credible new reports. You didn't need me to tell you any of that. What I am going to tell you about is what I see everyday going on in the trenches, meaning in the courts where so much of the legal activity relating to foreclosures takes place.

It is a disaster. The shutting down of our state and federal court systems beginning in March of 2020, at least as they related to most civil matters, has now created huge backlogs of matters for the courts to work through. Even if there were not any foreclosures for the courts to handle, the courts seem to be anywhere from six months to a year behind where they ought to be in disposing of matters. The courts' processing of litigation is also significantly slowed by the procedures still in place because of COVID-19 which have required less-efficient off-site working by many courtroom personnel.

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