Huge foreclosure spikes in some states
As the foreclosure machine cranks up again, numbers soar in Pennsylvania, Maryland and several other states.
This post comes from Jeanine Skowronski at partner site MainStreet.
Foreclosure activity increased by 3% in January, with certain states experiencing a sharp increase in default notices, according to RealtyTrac.
The firm's latest data show that properties entering the first stage of the foreclosure process increased by 100% in Maryland and 112% in Pennsylvania year-over-year. Florida, Massachusetts and Connecticut all saw default-notice spikes of more than 20% year-over-year as well. (Post continues below.)
Some states, including Florida, Illinois, Indiana and Pennsylvania, saw their foreclosure activity increase year-over-year for the first time in more than 12 months.
"The foreclosure machine is slowly picking up again," says Daren Blomquist, RealtyTrac's director of marketing communications. He says the latest round of numbers indicate that the foreclosure filing freeze initiated in October 2010, resulting from the robo-signing controversy, is starting to thaw after almost a year of artificially low numbers.
In total, foreclosure filings were reported on 210,941 U.S. properties last month, with one in every 624 U.S. housing units experiencing either a default notice, a scheduled auction or a bank repossession in January.
RealtyTrac expects that increases in foreclosure activity will continue due to the finalized mortgage and foreclosure settlement between 49 state attorneys general, federal officials and five of the nation's largest lenders, which was reached earlier this month.
"Other roadblocks to foreclosure are still in place at the state level, however, including legislation altering the foreclosure process and lawsuits against lenders," RealtyTrac CEO Brandon Moore said in a written statement. "We expect to see somewhat uneven trends in local and regional foreclosure numbers going forward as lenders work through these additional legislative and legal roadblocks."
Despite the marked increases in certain states, Nevada continues to post the highest foreclosure rates, with one in every 198 housing units experiencing a filing in January. It was followed by California, where one in every 265 housing units was distressed, and Arizona, where one in every 325 housing units is experiencing some stage of foreclosure.
Other states with high foreclosure rates include Georgia, Michigan, Florida, Illinois, Delaware, Colorado and Indiana.
More on MainStreet and MSN Money:
Let those prices drop another 25% at least. The whole problem is that anyone who bought a house between 1999 and early 2008 was a sucker. Real estate traditionally appreciates at 3%-5% per year. This has been a historic fact for the last 120 years. Have a look for yourself:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Shiller_IE2_Fig_2-1.png
Greedy realtors, land developers, and mortgage bankers with the help of lower lending standards instituted by congress caused the problem. Politicians have caused many bubble economies by meddling in the free market to keep the last bubble they created from blowing up in their faces while they are still in office.
Lending standards were lowered in late 1990s during the Clinton administrattion to pump up the economy because of the impending tech bubble collapse. Advocates for affordable housing in congress pushed for lower lending standards to open the housing market up for minorities and low income individuals.
The lax standards continued under the Bush administration. He was desperate to keep the economy afloat after 9/11 and did nothing. It's not really surprising given the explosion of lobbyist and special interest groups for many industries including realty, banking, and construction. Boom and bust economics cycles have been fueled by government meddling for years.
Ultimately buyers signed their name on the dotted line and they should suffer the consequences. People think they are entitled to own a home in this country but they are not. You are responsible for your own fiscal decisions and if you let a realtors or new home builders talk you into it then live with the consequences.
When is congress and the federal government going to realize that they screwed up by not making it immediately active.I'll tell you why cause the big mbanks are greasing their pockets as it gives the banks time to foreclo0se on many accounts that are barely forclosible so they don't have to pay the money.Any congressman,sdenator,mayor ,police chief s\,or members all the way up to the president say they are not being greased then they lie and blow smoke up our buts and you news people are being greased.I served my country fdor 20 years and still respect my country and the people but our leaders down to the cops are an abomination.
I was talking with my financial adviser (Elvis of course). I think he might have the answer. He calls it the Forty Four Plan. If you have a mortgage, the principle is reduced 40 percent. If that pays it off, any excess is refunded to you (tax free). If your mortgage is paid off, take the value of the house in 2006 and you get 40 percent of that back (tax free). All interest rates on mortgages are reduced to 0.4 percent, we'll call that the Forever Rate. Of course if you paid more you're due that tax free rebate. If you were foreclosed you're due a 40 percent refund on all the money you were swindled out of (closing costs, etc. and that 0.4 interest rate). Your property tax should also be reduced 40 perent of course. Well, my keepers are here - back to my padded cell - bouce about the rubber room for awhile. You hang in there - be tough.
Peace
The same question is asked over and over. "Why did the banks and Wall Street get away, scot free, with crimes that recently brought America to its financial knees?"
Yet the question is never asked, "Who are those who operate the banks and Wall Street?"
I suggest they are not Irish nor Swedish nor Italian, nor French, etc. . . . .
Why can we not speak up, identify, and confront those who we all know are the "Chosen" bad guys who get away with the mission of destroying America as we care for it to be.
Thirty year loan at around fifteen hundred a month.I couldnt sign the papers.
Glad i didnt,the jobs have dried up.Under the Obama economy im looking into building a home out of pallets.
I recommend buying a tent while you can afford it.And beans and rice well go far.
Vote for Ron Paul if you care about the future of the country.And there needs to be a serious discussion about term limits in washington.
I blame both the borrowers and the government. More so the government.
Of course the borrowers should have bought based on means not their dreams as Brian correctly said.
Still, the government caved into the bank lobby and repealed the safeguards put in place after the great depression when wide spread bank failures occured due to speculation by banks.
Read "Lords of Finance" to learn the real truth about banking and government involvement.
This mess would have be avoided if the old law (which wasn't broken) was not "fixed" for the benefit of the banks, by the banks. Banking is a powerful lobby and won the right to risk what in the end was our money. They took the risk with our money and we lost.
Is everyone ready for the best question on this page? I hope so. Why did we bailout banks? When in fact anyone that has a home loan or mortgage knows you pay for insurance on the loan known as default insurance loan. This means that the bank is paid even if we default on a loan. So the question remains. Why were the banks bailed out when it should have been the insurance industry that should have received the money not the banks? Hmmmm! Now a better thought. The banks got paid by insurance companies, kept the houses to sell, and got the bail out on top of everything. This poses a legal issue that arises to my mind. The banks should have been ethical enough to return the money and state it belongs to the insurance industries and not themselves. Didn’t they report the very next year record-breaking profits and doesn’t the CFO have to sign off on every decision regarding money moved and taking. HMMMM. Sounds like a violation of Sarbanes-Oxley: 301,303 400-404
The investors did you receive a huge dividend yield during all of this. (Probably not.) I know I didn’t. This is food for thought. I was just thinking about these issues and wondered why things are the way they are. The question of why we bailed out the banks is still standing. I find it funny that the banks own all the properties and yet got paid for the loan. Hmmmm so they got a house for free and still got paid. Then to boot they received a government bailout. I am not happy with our government not researching to find out where the money really goes. As well as I am not happy they didn’t ask us the American people to vote on whether we even want to bail them out. Can anyone say Unconstitutional? Where was our proper notice before new tax was implemented on bailout? Where was our right to vote on said tax increase due to faulty business practices? If this was the case why wasn’t World-com, Enron, and etc.... bailed out instead of prosecuted? Why aren’t these banks being prosecuted?
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