Foreclosures trend upward
Given the continued unemployment rate and the disastrous Home Affordability Modification Program (that has barely helped any homeowners despite a $75 billion injection), it is no surprise that foreclosures are on the rise.
Foreclosures aren’t just on the rise though, they’re up 16% over the first three months of 2009 and up 7% over the last quarter of 2009, according to RealtyTrac. With nearly 258,000 of the record 367,000 filings in March alone being bank repossessions, the landscape is quickly changing from notices to actual repossessions. REOs are up 35% over the first quarter of 2009.
“This subtle shift in the numbers pushed REOs to the highest quarterly total we’ve ever seen in our report and may be further evidence that lenders are starting to make a dent in the backlog of distressed inventory that has built up over the last year as foreclosure prevention programs and processing delays slowed down the normal foreclosure timeline,” said RealtyTrac CEO James Saccacio.
Where it hurts
Nearly 70% of all foreclosure activity stems from only ten states. Like every quarter for the past 14 quarters, Nevada continues to have the highest foreclosure rate. Nevada filings are up 15% over the fourth quarter of 2009, so one in 33 Nevada homes received a filing this first quarter.
While Arizona’s filings are up 15% from the fourth quarter, they’re one of the few states that is doing better than the first quarter of 2009, as they are down 16% from that time.
Utah is in a bad place right now as filings have skyrocketed 75% over the first quarter of 2009, and are up 21% from even the last quarter of 2009.
