Friday 14 August 2009

US foreclosures - no end in sight

When will it end? No time soon, it appears....

From Reuters...

U.S. home loans failed at a record pace in July despite ongoing federal and state programs to avoid foreclosures, which have severely strained housing and the economy.

Foreclosure activity jumped 7 percent in July from June and 32 percent from a year earlier as one in every 355 households with a loan got a foreclosure filing, RealtyTrac said on Thursday. Filings -- including notices of default, auction and bank repossession -- have escalated with unemployment.

"July marks the third time in the last five months where we've seen a new record set for foreclosure activity," James J. Saccacio, RealtyTrac's chief executive, said in a statement.

"Despite continued efforts by the federal government and state governments to patch together a safety net for distressed homeowners, we're seeing significant growth in both the initial notices of default and in the bank repossessions."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I seem to remember Alt A loans, or liars loans as they were more fashionably called, don't peak in terms of resetting to a higher interest rate until 2012.
So things will get worse for years yet.

boiling frog said...

http://www.safehaven.com/article-14202.htm
In the midst of this long article by John Maudlin is a diagram indicating that foreclosures will not be as low as 2007 levels until 2014. Apart from arm resets, it cites Economy-related Foreclosures as the main cause.