Since one year, the owners of houses who were forced to hand in the keys to their mortgage creditor have been much fewer in Quebec, a sign that the economy is recovering.
For all of the year 2010, a total of 2920 owners saw their residence being seized by their financial institution, which constitutes a retreat of 6,5% compared to the 3125 seizures of 2009. The seizures of last year represented a sum of 582,6M$ of credits.
The month of December confirmed the tendency, when 190 residences were taken again, compared to 291 in December of 2009. This is a fall of 35%, according to data from GDL Crédit Ressource obtained on Monday.
The previous month, the retreat had been of the same order, i.e. 33%.
In December, the average of the mortgage balances of the seized houses amounted to 182.728$, for a total of credits of 34,7M$.
The region of Montreal comes at the head of the list as for the average of the balances, with an amount of 291.635$. The lowest average is in the region of the Appalachian Mountains, at 83.539$.
The areas of Montérégie, Laval, the Laurentians, and Montreal counted the majority of the procedures.
The downward trend should still continue for the next few months, whilst the number of notices will continue to decrease.
In addition, still in December, the notices of seizure fell by12,2% to settle at 690.
This procedure is the first stage rising from a non-payment. It does not automatically lead to a seizure, but it gives an outline of the tendency to come.