Potential Home Foreclosures Double

Posted on May 13th, 2008 by saman

The number of homes in the United States that are headed towards foreclosure have more than doubled from the first quarter of 2007. This is occurring as property values drop and lending gets tighter. This economic problem has left homeowners feeling powerless to stop their homes from being foreclosed on and auctioned. The states that have been hit the hardest are Florida, Nevada and especially California.

Across the nation over six hundred thousand homes have gotten at least one foreclosure notice during the first three months of this year. This is an increase of one hundred and twelve percent from three hundred and six hundred thousand during the same time last year. These amounts also include a twenty three percent increase from the fourth quarter of 2007.

One in every one hundred and ninety four households has received a foreclosure notice during the first quarter of this year. Foreclosures filings have increased in every state but four.

The first quarter marked the seventh quarter in a row of climbing foreclosure activity.

What would typically happen in a normal market to ease the foreclosure problem is people would begin to buy homes again. However, since loans are not available to people who don’t have a perfect credit rating and who cannot make a hefty down payment, this is slowing down the process.

The increase in foreclosures suggest that the heavily promoted programs lawmakers and the mortgage industry have said were aimed at helping distressed homeowners is simply not paying off in the way they should be.

Hope Now, the organization developed by the Bush administration said that over five hundred thousand homeowners have gotten aid for their mortgages during the first quarter of this year. However, the aid is only temporary.

The state of Pennsylvania stands out in the latest foreclosure information. In Pennsylvania the number of homes that have received a foreclosure notice has dropped twenty four percent from last year. The decline in foreclosure notices in Pennsylvania is credited to the state’s foreclosure relief programs. Cities such as Philadelphia have put a moratorium in place on foreclosure auctions for the month of April. Other measures have been put in place to help slow down the number of foreclosures.

Over one hundred and fifty thousand properties were repossessed nationwide during the first quarter of this year.

The large number of foreclosed properties that are currently on the market has contributed to the dropping home values. However, lenders have not yet offered big enough discount on homes that have been repossessed.

Nevada had the worst foreclosure rate in the country. One in every fifty four households has received a foreclosure notice. This is four times the foreclosure rate in other parts of the nation

The state of California has the most homes that are facing foreclosure. The number of homes facing foreclosure is over one hundred sixty nine thousand. This is an increase of about two hundred percent from last year. California also has the second highest rate of foreclosure in the nation. One in about seventy eight households has received a foreclosure notice in that state.