While many major lenders took steps to stem the rising tide of foreclosures, RealtyTrac reported that the number of households facing foreclosure increased 30% compared to a year ago. Last month, roughly 291,000 homes received at least one foreclosure-related notice -- which is 6% higher than January.
Western states and Florida continue to lead the country in foreclosures (with Nevada, Arizona, and California leading the West), but RealtyTrac noted that states like Idaho, Illinois, and Oregon saw more foreclosures.
RealtyTrac's Vice President Rick Sharga noted that this data "doesn't bode well ... At least for the foreseeable future, it's going to continue to be pretty ugly."
Although major banks took steps to stop foreclosures, temporary bans ended in Florida and New York, which were two of the states that contributed to February's increase.
While bans ended in those states, other states took steps to help homeowners (like Michigan). I previously mentioned Nevada, Arizona, California, and Florida as the states leading in foreclosures. Idaho, Michigan, Illinois, Georgia, Oregon, and Ohio completed the 10 states leading the list.
Turning to cities, Las Vegas was at the top of the list, with one in every 60 houses facing foreclosure. Las Vegas was trailed by Cape Coral/Fort Myers in Florida and Stockton, Modesto, Merced, Riverside-San Bernadino, and Bakersfield -- all in California.
RealtyTrac also reported that nearly 12% of all Americans with a mortgage (that is 5.4 million homeowners) were at least a month late or in foreclosure at the end of 2008. This number is up from 10% at the end of the third quarter and 8% at the end of 2007.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-12-2009 @ 9:01AM
BHarrison said...
The foreclosure rate is bound to INCREASE during the next 18 - 24 months. A growing "common problem" for condo and homeowner associations is that the FIs are substantially "dragging their feet" in processing foreclosure actions against homeowners who are significantly behind in their mortgage payments.
This horrific BACKLOG is increasing, therefore the number of foreclosures "in the pipe line" is increasing and will not decrease anytime soon. Then we will still incur massive foreclosures due to those who have and are becoming unemployed.
Yet, 9 out of 10 of the CEOs who orchestrated or oversaw the orchestration of the economic frauds that resulted in the melt down of our economy are STILL running those corporations. They should be being indicted and prosecuted for the frauds that they implemented resulting in the clooapse of our economy.
When will Congress take actions to clean up this corporate mess?