NM Less Slow to Foreclose Big Mortgages

Maybe it is that the owners are educated and know how to game the system. Maybe it is that lenders prefer more and smaller losses than taking the hit on a mortgage of $1million or more. Whatever the reason, it takes longer to foreclose on the larger mortgages.

“Longer” means that in Kentucky, the national champ, it takes just under 600 days to foreclose on a mortgage of $250,000 or less. For the $1 million mortgage it takes around a thousand days. That difference is well ahead of Missouri, the number two, which takes 319 days more to foreclose the big mortgage.

For New Mexico the difference is 79 days. We’re at around 550 days to foreclose the $250,000 mortgage and just over 600 days to the $1 million mortgage. Our difference ranks 33rd.

For the less expensive mortgages, Arizona is among the nation’s fastest two or three states. But that would figure. Arizona has had practice.

Fifteen states, among them Wyoming, have fewer than ten foreclosures on mortgages of more than $1million. I guess the folks in Jackson Hole are making their payments. Note than NM, a "poor" state, has enough big mortgages going under to make the list.

The report is in today’s Wall Street Journal.