Daniel and Robin Akerman inspect their new house after buying in short sale in Pensacola, Fla.
By Jilian Mincer
When Jennifer Anderson's family could no longer afford their
mortgage and lost their home, she expected many years to pass before
they would again become property owners. But less than two years later, in March, they purchased a $297,000
house outside Phoenix, Arizona, after qualifying for a loan backed by
the U.S. government. They joined a small but growing number of Americans who are making a
surprisingly quick return to homeownership after defaulting on their
loans or being forced into short sales that cost their banks money. "We didn't really expect it," said Anderson, 40. "We were resigned to
the fact that we were going to be in a rental property for a while." Financial
problems arose after she lost her job as a customer service
representative for a health insurance company and her husband's hours at
an automaker were cut. To make matters worse, they used up her
retirement savings trying to keep their home. Data is not available, but interviews with more than 30 lenders,
builders, Realtors and consumers suggest that a growing number of
Americans are getting back into the housing market, even though they
went through a foreclosure, bankruptcy or short sale in recent years.
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