US foreclosure filings surge 55 percent By ALAN ZIBEL â 8 hours ago WASHINGTON (AP) â The number of homeowners stung by the dramatic decline in the U.S. housing market jumped last month as foreclosure filings grew by more than 50 percent compared with the same month a year ago, according to data released Thursday. Nationwide, more than 272,000 homes received at least one foreclosure-related notice in July, up 55 percent from about 175,000 in the same month last year and up 8 percent from June, RealtyTrac Inc. said. That means one in every 464 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing last month. Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac monitors default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions. More than 77,000 properties were repossessed by lenders nationwide in July, the company said. Nevada, California, Florida, Arizona, Ohio, Georgia and Michigan had the highest foreclosure rates. Foreclosure filings increased from a year earlier in all but eight states. The combination of weak housing sales, falling home values, tighter mortgage lending criteria and a slowing U.S. economy has left financially strapped homeowners with few options to avoid foreclosure. Many can't find buyers or owe more than their home is worth and can't refinance into an affordable loan. As foreclosures soar, banks and mortgage investors are also facing a pileup of foreclosed properties on their books and are cutting prices dramatically. RealtyTrac noted that it had more than 750,000 foreclosed homes in its database of properties for sale, equal to about 17 percent of the 4.5 million U.S. homes that were up for sale in June. To speed up the disposition of the 54,000 foreclosed properties it owns, Fannie Mae is opening offices in California and Florida and is considering selling those properties in bulk to investors. "I do not think this is a time to be holding onto (foreclosed properties) hoping for a better day," CEO Daniel Mudd said last week. It remains to be seen how much the government's intervention will stem the housing crisis. President Bush last month signed sweeping housing legislation that aims to prevent foreclosures by allowing homeowners to swap their mortgages for more affordable loans, but only if their lender agrees to take a loss on the initial loan. The bill is projected to help about 400,000 households. The number of foreclosures "could start to stabilize as early as the first quarter of next year if the government program gains any traction," said Rick Sharga, RealtyTrac's vice president for marketing. "That's really the unknowable right now." Even with government help, nearly 2.8 million U.S. households will either face foreclosure, turn over their homes to their lender or sell the properties for less than their mortgage's value by the end of next year, predicts Moody's Economy.com. In the RealtyTrac report, the Cape Coral-Fort Myers area in Florida was the metro area with the highest rate of foreclosure, followed by three California cities: Merced, Stockton, and Modesto. Las Vegas ranked fifth.
You love doom & gloom headlines don't you? I mean you really get off on it. Everyday you post 5+ headlines that are negative. So my honest question to you is: are you long ANYTHING?
Paid cash for my upper-middle class home on the Island. Sure glad I didn't buy that huge house with a mortgage requiring 50% of my gross income. Nobody in their right mind would do that anyway, right? Nah...
seriously doom and gloom allways here on ET, if its not about how the world is going to end, or how the usa is finished, or every company is going bankrupt.. what he fails to mention it is that that 1 foreclosure per every 464 houses is only about or about 2 TENTHS of 1% or .00215 this is the same chance as the world getting hit with an asteriod in 2030 http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/asteroid_2030_001103.html what h1-in-500 Chance Asteroid Hits Earth in 2030 By Andrew Bridges Pasadena Bureau Chief posted: 05:00 pm ET 03 November 2000 PASADENA, Calif. A small, newly discovered asteroid has a one-in-500 chance of striking the Earth in 2030, scientists said, stressing that while the odds are slim, theyve never been worse. How Close is Close? Asteroid 2000 SG344 already orbits very close to Earth. This animationcreated with Starry Night Pro shows the asteroid's current path, but does not compensate for the force of Earth's gravity effecting the orbit. [Watch the Video ] "This is the first time we have ever had a prediction of an impact at this high a probability level, but its still very unlikely," said David Morrison, chairman of the International Astronomical Unions Working Group on Near-Earth Objects. Initial estimates peg the objects diameter at 98 to 230 feet (30 to 70 meters). The upper limit would mean the object merits careful monitoring, since it would be of a size that could cause considerable local damage were it to strike the Earth. Paul Chodas, the principal engineer in the Near-Earth Object Program office at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), estimates a one-in-500 chance it would collide with Earth on September 21, 2030.