Millions Of Spenders Are Ready To Come Back From The Mortgage Crisis

The financial crisis of 2007–2008 isn't necessarily a distant memory in many people's minds. It is, however, a long enough period for credit reports to purge negative entries for more than half a million potential home buyers.

Bloomberg, citing data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, reported that the number of consumers who suffered a foreclosure peaked at 566,000 in the second quarter of 2009. Seven years later, these negative entries are purged from an individual's credit report.

From 2006 through 2010, the total number of individuals who suffered a foreclosure is estimated at 6.8 million.

Now that the seven painful years for many individuals are coming to an end, some are expecting a more mature and responsible group of consumers to seek out loans and get another chance at home ownership.

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These consumers are also lucky given the near-record low interest rates available. A clean credit report free of any negative entries helps consumers lock in these low rates across various credit products, including credit cards, auto loans and other types of debt.

Meanwhile, the data seem to support the theory that consumers who were hurt the most by the housing crisis (aged 35 to 44 years old) are now buying new homes. Bloomberg noted that the home ownership rate for this segment has risen for two strait quarters on a year-over-year basis for the first time in two years.

Richard Green, an outgoing senior adviser on housing finance for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development told Bloomberg, he expects a "slow trickle" of new buyers "will come back" and offer a "slow and steady support of the U.S. housing market."