Foreclosure rates, which jumped an astounding 90% in May, are showing no signs of slowing as something like $2 trillion worth of adjustable rate mortgages are due to reset at higher interest rates.

Once red-hot real estate markets, including Las Vegas, are now ice cold and speculators are being forced to dump properties that they bought at the height of the real estate bubble. The market doesn't look like it will rebound until late in the year at the earliest.

What makes these statistics particularly surprising is that mortgage companies typically want to avoid foreclosures. It's a costly, time-consuming process that can drag on for months. Once a bank gains possession of the home, it has to go through the hassle of finding a new buyer. I don't know whether this data indicates that lenders don't think it's worth the effort to help out home owners or that they've already exhausted every means at their disposal to help them.

The hurt goes beyond subprime mortgages.

If people don't get good prices for their homes, they won't be able to upgrade into more expensive ones, which is why home builders including Toll Brothers Inc. (NYSE: TOL) continue to suffer. Bloomberg News notes that the Mortgage Bankers Association estimates that investment in the residential housing industry, which includes purchases and expenditures for equipment such as heating and air-conditioning, fell 17.2% in the first quarter.

All of this is especially bad news for first-time home buyers. Credit standards are being ratcheted up so high that many people who would have qualified for loans six months ago can't get a mortgage today, according to Bloomberg News.

Foreclosure rates show no sign of slowing originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 13 Jun 2007 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.