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Number of Foreclosure Homes Still Increasing
By Vic Hurlstorm | March 8, 2010
There was a five percent increase in the number of foreclosure homes during the third quarter of 2009 when compared to the second quarter of the same year. The Making Home Affordable program of the federal government was unable to stop the rise in foreclosure filings in spite of its attempts to decrease the monthly payments of the homeowners who are experiencing financial hardships by making it easier for them to qualify for a loan modification. Apparently, the government program was overpowered by the large increase in the number of people without jobs.
There were almost 938,000 foreclosure homes during the period of July to September 2009, which is approximately 48,000 homes more than the preceding quarter. At this rate, the number of foreclosure filings is expected to reach approximately 3.5 million for the whole year of 2009, which is much higher than the 2.3 million filings in 2008.
Many economists have been declaring that the recession has ended but the foreclosure rate is still on the rise because the unemployment rate has reached an unprecedented level of 9.8 percent during the past 26 years. To make matters worse, the unemployment rate is predicted to continue to rise until it will reach its peak in the middle of 2010. In their own way, mortgage lenders have been helping by allowing the borrowers to postpone their payments by three to six months while they are trying to find work. Unfortunately, looking for work at a time when the unemployment rate has reached an all-time high is very tough.
The Administration of President Obama had recently reported that its initiative has attained an important milestone when more than 500,000 loan modifications have been granted. Unfortunately, the number of borrowers getting into default still surpassed the number of homeowners who were being given loan modifications.
Mortgage lenders have been doing their share in minimizing the effects of the housing crisis by reducing the rate at which they are filing foreclosures. They have been trying to examine whether the borrowers would be able to fulfill the requirements for the Making Home Affordable program of the Obama Administration. However, analysts believe that a large number of these homeowners would not be eligible and they predict that more forecloser homes will become available in 2010. This is expected to pull down home market values further. It has been observed that the financial problems being experienced by some of the borrowers are so massive that banks and lenders are finding it impossible to structure a loan modification plan that would fit their current income capacity. For more foreclosure news stop by http://www.bestforeclosurenews.com
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