Foreclosure Crisis Hits New Highs
The mortgage meltdown continues, as foreclosure statistics released yesterday by RealtyTrac make clear. Filings nationwide have more than doubled, compared to the first quarter of 2007, and are up 23 percent since the last quarter of 2007.
That translates to one in every 194 homes receiving at least one foreclosure filing in the first three months of this year, reports the Associated Press. In the hardest-hit areas, such as California, Florida and Nevada, the news is even worse.
“California had the most properties facing foreclosure at 169,831, an increase of 213 percent from a year earlier,” the news agency writes. “It also posted the second-highest foreclosure rate in the country, with one in every 78 households receiving a foreclosure-related notice.”
Florida was close behind. It had 87,893 homes facing foreclosure—one in every 97 households. That represents a 178 percent increase over last year’s figures.
Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist at the MFR Inc. consulting firm, says home prices are likely to drop further, at least until the end of this year, because of the hefty supply of unsold homes, according to the Wall Street Journal.
“Even after sharp drops for more than a year, however, home prices in Los Angeles, Miami and Washington, D.C., remain more than double their levels at the start of the decade,” the newspaper writes.
Related coverage:
Associated Press: “More Republicans back Democrats’ housing rescue”
New York Times: “Federal Mortgage Plan Falls Short, Critics Say”
Bloomberg: “More Subprime, Alt-A Mortgages May Head ‘Underwater’ “
Los Angeles Times: “Home prices keep falling in February”
