More Foreclosures Could Soon Flood the Marketplace in Jersey [AUDIO]

A lot of foreclosed properties - that had been "frozen" in legal limbo since the beginning of last year - are about to come back onto the market, now that legal and administrative questions surrounding the "robo-signing" mortgage scandal have been resolved.

Pat O'Keefe, the Director of Economic Research at JH Cohn says "New Jersey actually has the second highest percentage of loans already in foreclosure - of any of the states nationwide - only Florida has more - and as of the 4th quarter - 8-point-2 percent of the mortgages in the state were in foreclosure -which is equivalent to about 100 thousand units of housing - we also had another 50 thousand units that were in the potential pipeline- because the mortgage was in arrears."

He says all of the lingering questions have been resolved, "so looking at the market where we are today, we can expect to see a growing number of foreclosed properties coming onto the market - probably we'll see a surge in the number of distressed sales during the summer- and then, that will begin the healing process."

O'Keefe points out as the economy continues to improve, with home sales increasing, that "should help us work through this inventory of foreclosures more rapidly and with less price impact than would have been the case a year ago…as that happens we will see the market stabilize, and toward the end of this year we should see the housing market here in New Jersey improve fairly robustly."