Feb. foreclosures up 60 percent over year before

[Pale Blue Dot]

Source: MSNBC

Nearly 60 percent more U.S. homes faced foreclosure in February than in the same month last year, with Nevada, California and Florida showing the highest foreclosure rates, a research firm said Wednesday.

A total of 223,651 homes across the nation received at least one notice from lenders last month related to overdue payments, up 59.8 percent from 139,922 a year earlier, according to Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac Inc.

Nearly half of the homes on the most recent list had slipped into default for the first time.

...

February marked the 26th consecutive month with a national year-over-year increase in foreclosure-related filings.

Meanwhile, the number of foreclosed properties that didn’t sell at auction and ended up going back to lenders soared more than 110 percent last month versus February 2007, RealtyTrac said.


Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23601813/

[Doctor_J]

1. A debacle of historic proportions

this crisis, and the Bush era as a whole

[UpInArms]

2. b. foreclosures up 60 pct on yr -RealtyTrac

Source: Reuters

NEW YORK, March 13 (Reuters) - U.S. home foreclosure filings in February edged down from January but were a whopping 60 percent higher than a year earlier, real estate data firm RealtyTrac said on Thursday.

The surge in foreclosures from a year earlier indicated that the cycle has yet to hit its peak, the firm said.

Home foreclosure filings in February totaled 223,651, down 4 percent from January, RealtyTrac, an online market of foreclosure properties, said in its February U.S. Foreclosure Market Report. The figure is a total of default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions,

In January, home foreclosure filings had risen 8 percent from December.

<snip>

"However, the year-over-year increase of 60 percent this February was significantly higher than the 19 percent year-over-year increase in February 2007, indicating we have still not reached the peak of foreclosure activity in this cycle," he said.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN1329629120080313?sp=true

[sarcasmo]

3. Kick and Rec, if you think this is bad, wait until the credit card fiasco comes a calling.

[stark6935]

4. ...

I've heard people are just abandoning their homes now.

[magellan]

5. We know a family who did just that

They got royally screwed by their mortgage company (CountryWide). Unlike others, they realized what was going to happen several months before it did. They tried everything in their power to negotiate a path through the coming mortgage adjustments so they could sustain. CountryWide wouldn't budge. So they took on extra jobs and did their best to keep up with the increasing monthly payments, working night and day, and with a toddler their teenage son wound up looking after. But it wasn't enough. One day they just packed up and were gone.

Obviously there are lots of different stories out there. Some people got themselves into their own messes. But others like this struggling young family were outright preyed upon, and the lenders have no one but themselves to blame for a good number of foreclosures. That's why it fries my bottom that the government is covering their "bad loans"; CountryWide begged for a foreclosure in this case and it's undoubtedly not the only instance.

[selador]

6. two sides

the other side to EVERY bubble is a crash.

neither is good/bad.

both offer opportunities and risks to speculators.

i hate to say that higher foreclosures is both good and bad.

it's bad because some people lose their homes

it's good because it offers value to buyers who wait to buy panic (instead of euphoria) and helps increase supply which helps prices regress to a mean

that's good because houses were ridiculously overvalued and NEED to come down and it was inevitable that they would.

happens after all bubbles. always has . always will.

corn, oil, gold, tulips, stocks, etc.

[RantinRavin]

7. I would like to see a breakdown on percentages

of how many foreclosed homes were families living in, and what percentage were investment homes that nobody actually was living in.