Amherst’s Goodman: One in five distressed homeowners at risk of losing home

Laurie Goodman, senior managing director at Amherst Securities, believes one in five distressed homeowners in the U.S. are facing, or may face, foreclosure. The analyst adds that little may be done to stem the tide of foreclosures without greater government intervention or significant principal reduction. Currently, she said 11.5 million home loans are non-performing or highly distressed. Goodman spoke at Thursday’s State of Housing webinar today, hosted by HousingWire. Several charts produced during the event paint a picture of a highly distressed housing market. Transition rates of negative equity homes are improving, however, from last year. “Many banks are opposed to principal writedowns,” Goodman said. “Though it is interesting that they make good use of this for their own portfolios. We think before this crisis is over you will end up with a mandatory principal writedown program.” Meanwhile, Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, maintained an optimistic tone on the future of the housing market. And Kyle Lundstedt, managing director of the applied analytics division at LPS, said one in three mortgage delinquencies have been in such a state for more than a year. The full webinar is available via HousingWire.com. Jacob Gaffney is the editor of HousingWire. Write him