U.S. Foreclosure Filings Rise 16% as Bank Seizures Set Record

[brentspeak]

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-15/u-s-foreclosure-filings-rise-16-as-bank-seizures-set-record.html

April 15 (Bloomberg) -- Foreclosure filings in the U.S. rose 16 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier and bank seizures hit a record as lenders stepped up action against delinquent homeowners, according to RealtyTrac Inc.

A total of 932,234 homes, or one out of every 138 households, received a default or auction notice, or were repossessed by banks, the Irvine, California-based firm said today. In March, filings rose 8 percent to the most in any month since RealtyTrac began publishing reports in January 2005.

“The banks are finally working through it,” Rick Sharga, RealtyTrac’s executive vice president for marketing, said in a telephone interview. “We’re seeing a resolution for properties that were in foreclosure but where seizure was delayed.”

Unemployed and “underwater” homeowners, or those who owe more than their property is worth, are driving foreclosures. The U.S. jobless rate was 9.7 percent in March, unchanged for a third month, the Labor Department reported April 2. More than a fifth of mortgaged homes were underwater in the fourth quarter, according to real estate data firm Zillow.com.

[ipaint]

1. Elizabeth Warren Introduces COP's April Report

"In 2009, 2.8 million homeowners received a foreclosure notice, and nearly one in four homeowners with a mortgage currently has negative equity." - Elizabeth Warren

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x455413


But the criminals are doing good on wall street so 200,000 people foreclosed on a month are dismissed as unavoidable collateral damage, along with the long term unemployed.