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.

Foreclosure Capitals: Is Your City Next?

As reported by Forbes - "America's Next Foreclosure Capitals":

The number of homeowners dealing with foreclosure is mounting. Nationwide, almost 766,000 homes received at least one foreclosure-related notice from July through September, according to Realty Trac. That's up 71% compared to the same time a year before.

Expect foreclosures to jump even more in Florida:

Expect already high foreclosure rates in Jacksonville, Naples and Miami to increase by 14% to 15% next year thanks to bottomless home prices and job loss.

"It's so far from recovery," says Doug Duncan, chief economist of Fannie Mae (nyse: FNM - news - people ). He says the ability to sell a home in the Sunshine State is not related to price, especially in the condo sector. "You can drop the price to zero and not sell a brand new property because there's no one there to buy it."

Bad in California too but, perhaps a light at the end of the tunnel:

It's not much better in California, home to five of the top 10 cities on our list, including Fresno, Santa Cruz, Merced and Santa Barbara. Here, foreclosures are expected to rise between 11% and 14% next year. Job growth figures are better than in Florida, and new housing permits have begun to bottom out, cutting into supply. Even though prices are down, transaction activity has surged 17% in San Diego, 21% in Los Angeles and 32% in Sacramento from last year, according to Radar Logic, a New York-based research firm.

"We're starting to see signs of a bottom in some places in California," says Scott Hoyt, a senior director of consumer economics at Moody's (nyse: MCO - news - people ) Economy.com. "Those places were the first places to crash. Now they're further into the foreclosure cycle. It looks like permit activity is starting to bottom out."

The Forbes foreclosure capital list - (full article and the data behind this list):

1. Jacksonville, FL
   
2. Fresno, CA
   
3. Naples, FL
4. Miami, FL
5. Orlando, FL
6. Santa Cruz, CA
   
7. Merced, CA
8. Oxnard, CA
9. Deltona, FL
10. Santa Barbara, CA

For now, the cries will continue ... when will this disastrous housing market ever find a bottom?