U.S. Foreclosure Inventory Reaches Peak for 2004

U.S. Foreclosure Inventory Reaches Peak for 2004, Announces Foreclosure.com

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/01-05-2005/0002770189&EDATE=

BOCA RATON, Fla., Jan. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- According to data released today by online foreclosure listing service, Foreclosure.com, 34,446 new foreclosed residential properties were listed for sale in the U.S. during December 2004. The total number of U.S. residential foreclosure properties available for sale in the U.S. during the month of December was 83,573. This inventory level marks the highest number of available properties in 2004.

"Based on current inventory, the time to invest in foreclosed properties is now. A decline in delinquency rates and strong economic indicators in the second half of 2004 will likely result in a dip in new foreclosure inventory during 2005," said Greg Sullivan, vice president and co-founder,

Foreclosure.com. "But, December's inventory shows that the foreclosure investment opportunity is peaking. The rise in new foreclosure inventory in the past month will help keep foreclosure investment opportunities high for the first few months of 2005."

...more with a list of foreclosures by state...

this was predicted, and will only get worse in '05.

I don't think I would want to buy a foreclosed property knowing that someone else had to give it up.
I lost a job in the early 90's and almost had my property foreclosed on. Luckily I sold it in time. The funny part about it is that I sold it just before the market went into a slump. I made about 30k off it in three years and the people who bought it ended up with property that they owed more than it was worth shortly after they bought it.

They and their Realtor treaded us like dirt because they knew I was out of work and had to sell the property. But today I look back and laugh at them.

money off someone else's misery. I can imagine lots of situations where foreclosure is the result of someone simply living beyond their means. You'll often find that people who get foreclosed on had 2nd or 3rd mortgages going and they were way overstretched. There's often some financial or medical crisis involved, but not always and sometimes they can be foreseen and planned for. Besides, foreclosures are in the public record and except for real dogs there is competitive bidding. What's the alternative? Folks should just be able to live in their house indefinitely without making payments that they agreed to make when they got the loan? - K

On edit: Some of those numbers in the PR piece seem out of whack:
CALIFORNIA
Total Properties: 129
New Foreclosures: 65

COLORADO
Total Properties: 2379
New Foreclosures: 1136