Foreclosure Rates Continue to Rise

Foreclosed news continues to dominate national headlines as the unemployement rate keeps climbing.  Reports say that almost 6% of homeowners are either in the rears on payments or at the cusp of foreclosure.  In comparison to a year ago, this number has doubled.  According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, it is very alarming to see that the rate of troubled homeowners have doubled in the past year.

In the month of April, there were more than 342,000 foreclosed properties in the US.  California posted 96,500 of the total foreclosures of the country.  This data is according to a web-based company, RealtyTrac.  Reportedly more than 600,000 senior citizens are also either delinquent or have already been foreclosed on.  AARP reports that older Americans, the ones that have subprime first mortgages, are 17 times more likely to have their homes foreclosed than Americans, of the same age, having prime loans.

The community is dramatically impacted by subprime loans and their much increased rate of foreclosure.  A study showed that in areas where subprime loans are prevalent, the number of foreclosure filings is also high.  In states where there is a predominance of foreclosure news, subprime mortgages consist of as much as 50 percent of the cases.

Other factors affecting foreclosures in a localized area were also studied.  They considered home value, race and income but arrived at a conclusion that subprime lending is the major factor for foreclosures.  Unemployment also added to the increase of foreclosure rates.  Many people simply do not have enough income to keep ahead on their mortgage payments.  That’s why MS Foreclosure and other areas as well are skyrocketing.  Because of this, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston recommended that unemployed homeowners should be given more focus by policies that aim to fight foreclosures.

The sad truth is that there will still be many more Americans that will be affected by foreclosure in the coming months. (Note: When doing your research online make sure to search for ‘forecloser‘ as well as it is a very common miss-spelling.)  But the government has already issued several legislations and policies to minimize the situation.  And the progress of these programs is still nowhere to be found because it takes more time than unexpected.  Many Americans simply do not have that long to wait.