Foreclosures Continue to Thrive as Moratoriums are Phased Out

As reported my CNNMoney.com - "Foreclosure plague: No cure yet":

Despite some positive signs starting to surface in select housing markets, foreclosures are still on the rise:

There were more than 360,000 properties with foreclosure filings -- including default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions -- an increase of 7% from June and 32% from July 2008, according to RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosed homes. In fact, one in every 355 U.S. homes had at least one filing during July.

Nevada, California, Arizona, and Florida continue to lead the nation in foreclosures as some foreclosure moratoriums are phased out:

The worst hit areas continue to be in the "sand states," with California posting the highest number of total filings, 108,104, and Nevada posting the highest rate of foreclosure at one for every 56 homes.

The other hardest hit states are Arizona, at one filing for every 135 homes, and Florida, at one for every 154. Las Vegas, with one for every 47 homes, had the highest rate among metro areas. That's Sin City's 31st consecutive month topping the list.

The real estate shakeout continues ...

Foreclosures Skyrocket

From CNNMoney.com - "Foreclosures soar 76% to record 1.35 million":

A record 1.35 million homes were in foreclosure in the third quarter, driving the foreclosure rate up to 2.97%, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Friday.

That's a 76% increase from a year ago, according to the group's National Delinquency Survey.

At the same time, the number of homeowners falling behind on their mortgages rose to a record 6.99%, up from 5.59% a year ago, the association said.

This means that one in 10 borrowers in America are either delinquent or in foreclosure.

Many of those troubled borrowers are in California and Florida, which have among the highest delinquency rates in the nation.

It looks like the subprime is now beginning to taint prime:

The weakened economy and mounting job losses are expected to push these numbers even higher. And that will likely affect homeowners with prime, fixed-rate mortgages, which make up the vast majority of loans and have so far held up fairly well. Until now, much of the housing market's problems were concentrated in the subprime, adjustable-rate market, where homeowners with weak financial backgrounds got loans they ultimately couldn't afford.

"We have not gone into past recessions with the housing market as weak as it is now, so it is likely that a much higher percentage of delinquencies caused by job losses will go to foreclosure than we have seen in the past," said Jay Brinkmann, MBA's chief economist.

Who's feeling the pain?

California and Florida continue to have the country's highest rates of new foreclosures. These states have about 93,000 and 90,300 of the foreclosure starts in the quarter, respectively, according to the group. The next state, Illinois, is far behind with about 27,500 starts.

California and Florida also lead the nation in job losses, with the Golden State losing 101,300 positions over the past year and the Sunshine State shedding 156,200 jobs.

... Seven other states had rates of foreclosure starts that were above the national average for the quarter: Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Rhode Island, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. But 20 states saw a decline in their foreclosure start rate, due to the moratoriums and modification efforts.

Subprime is really bad. Prime is bad and getting worse:

One in five subprime loans are now delinquent, crossing the 20% threshold for the first time, the group said. That level was up 3.72 percentage points from a year ago.

The number of prime loans past due also increased to 4.34%, up 1.22% from a year ago.

Essentially, the article concludes that this housing mess now comes down to one thing ... it's the economy stupid!

October 2008 Foreclosure Filings Rise Yet Again

As reported by CNNMoney.com - "85,000 homes lost to foreclosure in October":

As government and industry scrambled to stem the housing crisis, another 84,868 homes were lost to foreclosure in October, according to a report released Thursday.

Last month 279,561 struggling borrowers received foreclosure filings, including default notices, notices of auction sales and bank repossessions, according to RealtyTrac, an online marketplace for foreclosures. That's a 5% increase from September, and up 25% from October 2007.

"October marks the 34th consecutive month where U.S. foreclosure activity has increased compared to the prior year," said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac, in a statement.

A total of 936,439 homes have been lost to foreclosure since the housing crisis hit in August, 2007.

Mixed foreclosure news out of California:

A new law in California, one of the hardest-hit states in the housing crisis, requires banks to contact struggling homeowners 30 days before delivering a notice of default in order to give them time to restructure their plans.

Thanks to that legislation, foreclosures in the state fell 18% from September. But California still had the highest number of foreclosures in the country for October, logging 56,954 filings. That total was down from a peak of more than 100,000 filings in August, but up 13% from October 2007.

States getting clobbered with foreclosures:

Nevada had the highest rate of foreclosures of any state for the 22nd consecutive month in October, with one in every 74 housing homes receiving a foreclosure filing. Arizona had the second highest rate in October, with one in every 149 housing units in default. Florida was third, with one in every 157 homes there in default.

The housing debacle continues to go on and on. As if tanking housing prices and rising adjustable mortgage rates weren't enough, the severely deteriorating unemployment and economic conditions are beginning to take their toll as well. As if we needed anything else to compound matters.