Upcoming Foreclosures

How does a massive surge in foreclosures in the first three months of 2010 affect the recovery?

"RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday that the number of U.S. homes taken over by banks jumped 35 percent in the first quarter from a year ago. In addition, households facing foreclosure grew 16 percent in the same period and 7 percent from the last three months of 2009. More homes were taken over by banks and scheduled for a foreclosure sale than in any quarter going back to at least January 2005, when RealtyTrac began reporting the data, the firm said. "We're right now on pace to see more than 1 million bank repossessions this year," said Rick Sharga, a RealtyTrac senior vice president. Foreclosures began to ease last year as banks came under pressure from the Obama administration to modify home loans for troubled borrowers. In addition, some states enacted foreclosure moratoriums in hopes of giving homeowners behind in payments time to catch up. And in many cases, banks have had trouble coping with how to handle the glut of problem loans. These factors have helped slow the pace of foreclosures, but now that trend appears to be reversing. "We're finally seeing the banks start to process the inventory that has been in foreclosure, but delayed in processing," Sharga said. "We expect the pace to accelerate as the year goes on."" http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100415/ap_on_bi_ge/us_foreclosure_rates So the slowdown in the foreclosures...6 months before that?

Public Comments

1. It takes a long time to foreclose on a property. The foreclosures coming now are symptoms of how the economy was 6-9 months ago.
2. I guess this proves beyond doubt what a dismal failure the mortgage bailout was. Some people are too ignorant to see that it was just another bank bailout. This is happening because Obama has made it very difficult for banks and for small business to get lines of credit. More people getting laid off or are seeing pay cuts so that employers can meet their needs. Employers are also making their employees pick up more of their health insurance coverage so that they can meet financial obligations because their lines of credit have been lowered. This is hurting paychecks. I know this because I am an employer and we had to do this to our employees simply because our line of credit was cut in half. Obama's brilliant Wall Street reform plan will accelerate this problem because banks will be forced to carry a higher percentage of assets.....double, in fact. I seriously don't know who is guiding him on this, but it certainly isn't a business owner.