Foreclosures over the last 2-3 years have been a major issue for most states in the US. While California, Nevada, and some others have been topping the foreclosures by state charts for the highest numbers, others have maintained a low profile. With the start of the year 2009 and the promise of a new government, hopes had been high. However, whether the Obama government has been successful in doing anything concrete or not would only be seen after a couple of quarters. But we can definitely figure out if the new government's efforts are headed in the right direction or not.
This is what the US foreclosure market report for Q1 of the current year tells:
The total number of foreclosure filings, which is a collective figure of all default notices, notices for auction sale, as well as bank repossessions, amounted to 803,489. This Q1 figure is 9% more than Q4 2008 and 24% increase from quarter one of 2008.
During quarter 1 of 2009, one out of every 159 American houses filed for foreclosure!
As recently as March 2009, the total number of foreclosure filings amounted to 341,180 properties. This amount is a 17% rise from Feb 2009 and 46% rise from the same time previous year. The figures for Q1 and March 2009 have been the highest for both monthly and quarterly data since January 2005, despite the fact that there has been a slowdown in the Bank Repos (REOs). The Bank repo rate has gone down by 13% from Q4 2008 and 3% from February 2009.
Hope can't be upped just yet. The month of March this year has witnessed a very high amount of foreclosure activity, as more than 12% households from the highest number recorded up to now filed for foreclosure. What makes this situation worse is that the foreclosure action was seen in new loans, suggesting that lenders were waiting to foreclose properties due to delays on part of the government. Additionally, the fall in REO activity is mainly due to processing delays and not because of the implementation of foreclosure prevention plans, if any at all.
If foreclosure experts are to be believed foreclosures by state numbers are only going to increase. Moreover, the number of bank repossessions are going to increase as moratoria has been removed now.
However, the silver lining to these grey clouds of foreclosure has come in the form of increasing demand, especially in the hard-hit states. More and more buyers are now keen to invest in bank owned foreclosures as these offer excellent bargain opportunities. With increasing foreclosure inventory due to rising numbers of foreclosures by state, the demand from first time homebuyers and genuine investors is likely to offset this trend.
More Information:
The number of
Foreclosures by State as well as the number of bank repossessions is only going to increase each day more. Visit ForeclosureConnections.com to find thousands of
home foreclosures by state available for sale.
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