Foreclosures Across USA Double

November 30th, 2007

Last October 115,568 foreclosures had been listed but this year it is 224,451, showing a 94% increase. The numbers are 2% higher than the September number of 219,850. In October the ratio was one foreclosure for every 555 houses. The foreclosure filings are inclusive of default and auction sale notice as well as bank repossessions.

45 states saw a high jump rise from last year. Year by year the number is still up but it had leveled during the last two months after making an all time record in August this year. The pace has slackened most probably because of the lenders bending to pressure and beginning to modify terms of loans. Another reason may be a lull in filings after the shooting up following a new surge in interest rate rise. It usually takes two to three months for a borrower to be marked as defaulter after the reset sets in.

The situation is becoming worse because of the current depression in the housing market, which is making it difficult to sell houses. There seems to be no hope ahead because experts opine that roughly 2 million loans are about to reset in the following eight months. Inevitable this would lead to a surging of foreclosures.

In October lenders repossessed more and more houses after failing at the trustee auctions. Very few of those who were marked foreclosed managed to save their houses. In Ohio especially 45% of all the filings were bank notifications for repossession. In Missouri and Michigan the numbers were 46% and 37% respectively. Apart from the sub-prime other causes were economic woes like job loss.

Nevada topped the foreclosure list with a ratio of 1:154. In October the filings numbered 6,618 showing a rise of 20% from September and triple that of what it was in the same month the previous year. In California the ratio was 1:258 but it recorded the highest number of foreclosures – 50,401. It had come down by 2% from September but triple that of what the numbers were in October 2006. The ratio in Florida was 1:273 with the state recording 30,190 foreclosures. It was a 9% drop from September but up by 165% from the previous year. Ohio showed 1:290 with 17,276 foreclosure listings – 10% more than last month but 136% higher than the last year. The other top ranking offending states were Georgia, Michigan, Colorado, Arizona, Indiana and Illinois.