March 13, 2014 RealtyTrac reported that US foreclosure filings fell 27% year-over-year in February to a new seven-year low. U.S. Foreclosure Activity Decreases to Lowest Level in More Than 7 Years

Why should we care?

As we described back in 2009, foreclosed homes are the last big piece of the economic recovery puzzle.   Since it takes roughly 2 years for governments to process foreclosure requests,  when a homeowner loses their job and stops paying on their mortgage,   the home does not hit the foreclosure market until 2-3 years later.  A foreclosed home then takes another 400 days (2013 average).  This means that the Bush deregulation-caused 2008 Fiscal Crisis damage and Bush deregulation-caused job-losses are finally (logically) resolving in 2014,  just as we predicted back in 2009  Merida Real Estate Predictions

Just what does this have to do with us foreigners living in Mexico? 
If you look back at our past articles, you find that the big backlog of foreclosed homes  were the last piece keeping unemployment high and keeping a lid on the economic recovery.   This means that the last big piece of uncertainty about personal finances for people considering retirement & visiting or moving to Mexico,  will diminish with decreasing unemployment and increasing home values.    With low numbers of foreclosed properties,  potential Boomer retirees will be feeling the optimism from the  personal wealth effects of  a stock market at all time highs,  fully-recovered retirement accounts,  ~ and ~ higher home values .

Remember the Baby Boomers?
Baby Boomers: Retirement? Sufficient Savings? Their Likely Effects on Mexico?  pointed out that there are roughly 40 million Boomers who will be retiring with substantial savings and nice homes between 2014-2030, which takes us back to the point of this post:   The PREVIOUS backlog of foreclosed properties weighing down home values were the last item causing lots of retirees worries about the economic future.

Now that the backlog of foreclosed properties is back down to a manageable level, we should see a nice surge of retirees checking out Merida,   Yucatan,  and the beach areas over the next 5 years => good growth in both tourism   and   in our real estate and rental markets from relatively affluent new-Boomer retirees.

Let’s make them welcome.

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© Steven M. Fry

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