BluegrassForeclosure.com

One has to wonder how long the Great Recession will last and what will be the long term impact nationwide?  Remember, it took a global conflict to bring us out of the Great Depression and we were able to transform our new found industrial might into a global force.  What will happen this time around? Leave a comment, let us know what you think.

Again, from Cincinnati.com: “American household budgets are improving as employment increases, wages rise and consumers limit new debt. More than 500,000 workers got jobs during the first quarter while U.S. personal income gained 2.1 percent, according to Labor Department and Commerce Department data. A Federal Reserve gauge tracking the amount of disposable income going to mortgage and credit card bills shrank to a 12-year low at the end of 2010.

“As the economy has improved, as job creation has improved, we are beginning to see that reflected in the foreclosure numbers,” Jay Brinkmann, chief economist of the Washington-based mortgage bankers group, said in a telephone interview. “Real estate markets reflect what’s going on in the rest of the economy.”

A reduction in defaults doesn’t mean the housing crisis is coming to an end, said Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist at Maria Fiorini Ramirez Inc. in New York.

About 6.4 million home loans were either delinquent or in foreclosure in April, according to Lender Processing Services Inc., a Jacksonville, Fla.-based mortgage-transaction and data firm.

“It’s going to take a crazy amount of time for the process to play out, because of the sheer volume,” Shapiro said. “We may see some of the numbers come down a bit, but foreclosures are going to stay very high for a prolonged period of time – a year or two, or even more.”

Foreclosure filings are up here in Kentucky, but nationwide, serious delinquencies are on a slight decline.  What does this mean for us?  Here in Kentucky over the past decade, we have faced a dramatic loss of agriculture income from tobacco and a heavy decline in industrial jobs.  We have been facing an economic downturn for quite some time, but have been able to cope with it.  So while the  national recession was very deep in some areas of the country, we didn’t feel the depths of it.

But because we have not replaced some of our signature economic engines, it looks like Kentucky will have a longer time to recover.  So, while the recession wasn’t as deep here, it will be longer to overcome.

Unfortunately, I would argue that the full recovery has yet to begin from the Great Recession.  Relatively high unemployment levels for extended periods of time, coupled with decreasing benefits have caused more home owners to fall into default.

As Cincinnati.com reports: “Foreclosures in Ohio and Kentucky are at their highest levels since the housing crisis began – and possibly the highest since the Great Depression, new numbers out Thursday show.

One of every 20 Ohio mortgage holders was in foreclosure in the first three months of the year, according to trade group the Mortgage Bankers Association. In Kentucky, foreclosures had ensnared nearly one of every 25 mortgage holders.

Even households not in foreclosure are feeling the impact. The numbers show a real estate market awash in repossessed homes – a heavy drag on all property values.

. . .

As of March 31, Ohio had the seventh-highest foreclosure rate at 5.1 percent, up from eighth-highest at the end of 2010. Kentucky was up two spots, ranked 17th-highest with 3.8 percent of mortgage-payers in foreclosure.

. . .

In Ohio, nearly 72,000 homes were in foreclosure, and in Kentucky, more than 16,000.”

Kentucky’s seasonally adjusted preliminary unemployment rate fell from 10.2 percent in March 2011 to 10 percent in April 2011, according to the Office of Employment and Training (OET), an agency of the Kentucky Education and Workforce Development Cabinet.

The preliminary April 2011 jobless rate dropped .6 percentage point below the 10.6 percent rate recorded in April 2010 for the state. The 10 percent rate recorded in April 2011 is the lowest rate since February 2009 when it was 9.8 percent.

Read the rest here.

View the video for RealtTrac’s First Quarter 2011 report:  RealtyTrac 2011 1Q Report

Governor Beshear signed into law a “bill [that] authorizes the establishment of an electronic portal that will serve as a single, unified entry point for business owners to access information about state services and requirements for operating a business in Kentucky.  Additionally, the portal will allow Kentucky companies to submit forms and applications, make payments and complete other required transactions as part of doing business in the state.”

This should assist small businesses wanting to get started and current businesses wanting to expand.

Interested in more business articles?  Check out FrankfortLaw.com.

One of the few things the legislature did pass was to allow auctioneers to conduct the master commissioner sales.  Some counties already use these services.  But this should make it easier.

Here’s the language of the new law:

AN ACT relating to auctioneer services.
Create a new section of KRS Chapter 426 to permit a court upon the request of a creditor or mortgage holder to secure the services of an auctioneer licensed in this state to conduct the public sale, fix the auctioneer’s fee, and order the fee to be paid out of the proceeds of the sale; include caps for the licensed auctioneer’s fee that do not include expenses and fees incurred by the master commissioner for the sale under KRS 31A.010(4); require the master commissioner to employ a licensed auctioneer to handle the sale upon terms and conditions acceptable to the creditor or mortgage holder; require the sale to be conducted on the site of real property to be sold if the public sale is conducted by a licensed auctioneer; permit a master commissioner who is also a licensed auctioneer to recover fees for acting in his or her capacity as master or special commissioner under KRS 31A.010(4), but prohibit the master commissioner from collecting any extra fee for acting as an auctioneer; clarify that nothing contained in this section waives any provision of KRS 426.160, 426.200, or 426.560.