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Q2 Foreclosures Double

Friday, July 25, 2008 | 07:38 AM

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“Forty-eight of 50 states and 95 out of the nation’s 100 largest metro areas experienced year-over-year increases in foreclosure activity in the second quarter."
-RealtyTrac CEO James J. Saccacio, Q2 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report.

The latest RealtyTrac foreclosure data is out, and it is rather astonishing: Almost 740,000 properties were in some stage of the foreclosure process, the most since they began tracking this data in January 2005. That represents one in every 171 U.S. homeowners that either 1) lost their house to foreclosure; 2) received a default notice or 3) was warned of a pending auction. This is an increase of 121% from a year earlier, and is a 14% rise quarter over quarter. Falling home values have prompted RealtyTrac to almost double the projected number of foreclosures this year to about 2.5 million.

Pimco's Bill Gross noted that 25 million U.S. homeowners might soon be underwater -- risk owing more than the value of the their homes, according to Bloomberg. That would make it nearly impossible to negotiate better loan terms or sell their property without some additional cash contribution.

As the chart below shows, the number of properties with some sort of foreclosure action against them (default notice, auction notice, bank repossession) has risen for the past eight consecutive quarters.

US Quarterly Foreclosures by Quarter

chart courtesy of RealtyTrac

Sources:
Is Eight Enough?
darenb
RealtyTrac, July 25, 2008 2:00 AM
http://www.foreclosurepulse.com/archive/2008/07/24/104347.aspx

Foreclosures Double in Second Quarter as U.S. Home Prices Fall
Bob Ivry
Bloomberg, July 25 2008
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aomtw8.Pro2E&