NEW YORK-It was announced that the number of foreclosures plunged during the first half of 2011. Compared to the same period last year, foreclosure filing fell by 29%. and fell by 25% from numbers at the end of the last half of last year. Normally, that would be encouraging news. Normally, one would stop and think perhaps the worse is over.

Not so this time around. It seems the low number of filings is not because of people being able to keep up on their payments, but because of processing delays by the banks. These processing delays stem from the robo-signing scandal that hit the banking industry in early 2010. This means that foreclosures that normally would be filed now will not be filed until at least next year. According to organizations tracking foreclosures, the number should be roughly a million homes higher than the numbers reported. Bringing the numbers reported this year, 1.8 million, closer to 3 million.

In the past, banks acted quickly to send out Notices of Default. In as little as weeks, homeowners would receive notices from not paying on their loan. But, now banks are saddled with an excess of foreclosed homes and are not eager to take on more. What took weeks before, now lingers on for years. In some instances, the process takes up to 3 years before the foreclosures are finalized.

Because of this delay, the amounts of missed payments is sky-rocketing. Missed payments generally ranged in the area of $15,000-$17,000, now the amount of those payments have risen, in many instances, to $70,000+.

These foreclosure delays inevitably will push back the normalization of the housing market by years. The quote of normalization in the market slated by 2013 by experts will now move out to 2016 and beyond.