We’re not at all surprised that foreclosures are up. The data shows that properties in foreclosure in the United States grew just north of 35,000 units in May this year.

The real estate market landscape has been changing dramatically in the near-decade since the biggest recession in recent history. You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who wasn’t affected by the crash of the housing market in those years.

Even if they weren’t directly affected, they knew someone who was. They had foreclosure signs in their neighborhoods, they knew who was underwater on their mortgages. They had neighbors and friends and family who were affected.

While the nation licked their collection wounds, home buying confidence was obviously not stellar. People were afraid, and understandably so.

For years after the peak of the recession, foreclosures were still far too common, continuing to discourage homebuyers from taking the leap, thus further slowing recovery.

This is a question we get asked on a weekly basis and I suspect most of the questions are coming up because of mis-information being put out by opportunists.  People who are selling get-rick quick ideas or promoting a shiny new idea or product as a quick-fix for new real estate investors.  When most of the questions are coming from a place of fear, you can almost always bet that bad information is the cause of the question.  For real estate investing, my answer is to ask a different question!