U.S. Foreclosures Jump 57% as Homeowners Walk Away

[marmar]

from Bloomberg:



U.S. Foreclosures Jump 57% as Homeowners Walk Away (Update2)

By Dan Levy

April 15 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. foreclosure filings jumped 57 percent and bank repossessions more than doubled in March from a year earlier as adjustable mortgages increased and more owners gave up their homes to lenders.

More than 234,000 properties were in some stage of foreclosure, or one in every 538 U.S. households, Irvine, California-based RealtyTrac Inc., a seller of default data, said today in a statement. Nevada, California and Florida had the highest foreclosure rates. Filings rose 5 percent from February.

About $460 billion of adjustable-rate loans are scheduled to reset this year, according to New York-based analysts at Citigroup Inc. Auction notices rose 32 percent from a year ago, a sign that more defaulting homeowners are ``simply walking away and deeding their properties back to the foreclosing lender'' rather than letting the home be auctioned, RealtyTrac Chief Executive Officer James Saccacio said in the statement.

``We're not near the bottom of this at all,'' said Kenneth Rosen, chairman of Rosen Real Estate Securities LLC, a hedge fund in Berkeley, California and chairman of the Fisher Center for Real Estate at the University of California at Berkeley. ``The foreclosure process will accelerate throughout the year.''

Rising foreclosures will add more inventory to an already glutted market, keep home prices down through at least next year and thwart efforts by Congress and President George W. Bush to help homeowners avoid default, Rosen said in an interview. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a3_Y.T_wvElI&refer=home

[beachmom]

1. It seems that every day, another American will turn bitter at how they

lost their house and the American dream.

[marmar]

3. Yup.....How long before people take to the streets?

n/t

[Angela Shelley]

4. to demonstrate against what?

[OhioChick]

2. K&R

:kick:

[Greyhound]

5. K & R # 5

Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy ride.
:kick: & R

[nichomachus]

6. What they don't tell you

is that the figure is far worse. Some banks are so overwhelmed with defaults that they don't have the resources to begin foreclosure proceedings on all of them. It's a complicated -- and expensive -- process. They're letting things slide, but that will eventually catch up with them.

[nolabels]

7. When government spends tax dollars to ship your job overseas

Then the house you just bought two years ago goes upside down and your in debt for $200,000 because of another effed up government policy why would you not be bitter?

Walking away seems kind of like a kind of gentle thing to do :shrug:

[taught_me_patience]

8. The foreclosure rate is .18%

What is the big deal?

[girl gone mad]

9. no.

Nationwide, nearly 6% of all mortgages were delinquent at the end of the fourth quarter and just over 2% were in foreclosure.

Nevada, California and Florida had the highest foreclosure filing rates in the nation. One in every 165 households in Nevada received a filing in February, up 68% from a year ago and more than three times the national average. Home prices surged in all three states during the housing boom, partly due to investment by speculative buyers, but they have fallen dramatically since last summer.

In California, foreclosure activity was up 131% year-over-year with a total of 53,629 filings. Florida reported 32,447 foreclosure filings, up 69% over the same period last year.

Metro areas in California and Florida topped the list of urban centers facing a surge in foreclosure filings.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/13/real_estate/foreclosures_feb/?postversion=2008031410

[taught_me_patience]

10. I'm just getting my information from the article

"More than 234,000 properties were in some stage of foreclosure, or one in every 538 U.S. households"

[girl gone mad]

11. That's just for the month of February.

If you extrapolate that data, you'd get 12 in every 538 households, or 2.2%, which is pretty close to what we saw over the last year. Of course, real statisticians would be more scientific and take seasonal trends into account, as well as the fact that February is a shorter month, etc.

Every month new households are added to the roles as they begin the foreclosure process, while others are taken off the roles when the homes are auctioned or the owners make arrangements with the banks.

[taught_me_patience]

12. The report is ambiguous.

If it is just for Feb (or March), then I stand corrected.