From left: Pres. Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney

Asking prices in six of seven swing states have increased year-over-year, Trulia reported, adding that this could be good news for President Obama. The swing states were designated by political data site RealClearPolitics.com.

Two such states, Nevada and Florida — the center of the foreclosure crisis — have seen 7 and 6.9 percent year-over-year increases in asking prices, respectively. [more]

57,000 foreclosures were completed in August

There were 57,000 completed foreclosures in August 2012, down 75,000 a year prior and 58,000 from the previous month, according to a CoreLogic report.

August’s numbers were the lowest since April 2010.

“The continuing downward trend in foreclosures and a gradual clearing of the shadow inventory are important signals that the recovery in housing is gaining traction,” President and CEO of CoreLogic, Anand Nallathambi, said in a statement that accompanied its monthly National Foreclosure Report. [more]

CNBC screenshotThe so-called Bush tax cuts are set to expire at the end of this year. With that expiration comes an end to the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act, which makes short sales more appealing to banks than foreclosure. That could undercut the housing recovery, CNBC’s Diana Orlick explained on CNBC’s “The Kudlow Report.”

Also on the show, Meister, Seelig, & Fein’s Stephen Meister predicted that the end of the Bush-era tax cuts could would result in a sharp drop in short sales.(See video after the jump.)… [more]

New York State is pledging $60 million over three years to fund counseling and legal services for New York homeowners of distressed properties. The Attorney General announced this morning that this year’s portion of the assistance — $20 million — will be awarded to 59 housing groups and 35 legal service organizations, as well as to fund training and technical services to assist homeowners in foreclosure. [more]

Five sates with the most drawn out foreclosure process, including New York, would see government-backed mortgage fees increase under a new proposal by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

The proposal has home loan borrowers in those states paying a one-time fee of 0.15 percent to 0.3 percent for federally backed mortgages starting in 2013, Bloomberg News reported. [more]

The state of New Jersey has surpassed Nevada in the rate of homeowners who have seriously delinquent loans in the second quarter of this year, Businessweek reported. Year-over-year, the rate in New Jersey rose 1.3 percentage points to a total of 12.7 percent. The state now has the second-highest serious delinquency rate in the nation trailing only Florida.

The high delinquency rate is partly because of a huge shadow inventory that’s spurred by the state’s slow foreclosure process. There are 60,000 foreclosures started since January 2008 that currently await resolution in the prolonged process, which takes an average of 934 days. [more]

From left: First Residential Vice President Guillermina Chaux and a block in Jamaica (credit: Google)

Queens led the city in residential foreclosures during the economic downturn, and once again lenders are having trouble in the borough that saw an uptick in foreclosure filings in the first quarter of the year.

A survey by The Real Deal of Queens’ most active lenders of loans insured by the U.S. Federal Housing Administration, a division of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, found several with delinquency rates above the norm; but one lender stood out for having far more defaults than the others. [more]

The swing states most crucial to the outcome of the presidential election are also among the states most affected by the foreclosure crisis. But CNBC reported today on “Power Lunch” that the issue has largely been ignored by the candidates (see video after the jump).

Mitt Romney hasn’t discussed the issue extensively since visiting Florida in January and backtracking on his initial statements that the best cure for widespread foreclosures is to let them run their course. Still, Barack Obama’s campaign is using that quote in spanish language ads in several of the hardest-hit swing states…. [more]

The average sales price of bank-owned homes or homes in the process of foreclosure in the second quarter rose 6 percent quarter-over-quarter and 7 percent from the second quarter of 2011, according to a report released today by RealtyTrac. The average price comes in at $170,040 and marks the first year-over-year increase in average price since the second quarter of 2010, as well as the biggest year-over-year increase since the fourth quarter of 2006. [more]

Showing some positive signs, there were a recorded 58,000 completed foreclosures across America in July 2012 — down nearly 7 percent month-over-month and 19 percent year-over-year, according to data released today by CoreLogic. However, both New York and New Jersey ranked among the five states with the highest foreclosure inventory. More specifically, New Jersey ticked in at 5.7 percent — making it take the second-highest foreclosure inventory — and New York at 5.2 percent, right behind New Jersey. [more]