Foreclosure Storm Will Hit U.S. in ‘09 Amid Job Loss (Update1)

Source: Bloomberg

Dec. 11 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. foreclosure filings climbed 28 percent in November from a year earlier and a brewing “storm” of new defaults and job losses may force 1 million homeowners from their properties next year, RealtyTrac Inc. said.

A total of 259,085 properties got a default notice, were warned of a pending auction or were foreclosed on last month, the seller of default data said in a report today. That’s the fewest since June. Filings fell 7 percent from October as state laws and lender programs designed to delay the foreclosure process allowed delinquent borrowers to stay in their homes.

“We’re going to see a pretty significant storm next year,” Rick Sharga, executive vice president of marketing for Irvine, California-based RealtyTrac, said in an interview. “There are two or three clouds that suggest a pretty heavy downpour.”

Rising unemployment, expiring foreclosure moratoriums and state efforts that “run out of steam” will push monthly filings toward the record of more than 303,000 set in August, Sharga said. The number of homes that revert to lenders, the last stage of foreclosure and known as “real estate owned” or REO properties, will increase to 1 million from as many as 880,000 this year, he said.

Job Losses

“The forces leading to foreclosure are hard to offset in most cases and impossible in many,” Robert Hall, a Stanford University professor and chairman of the National Bureau of Economic Research committee that calls the beginnings and ends of recessions, wrote in an e-mail. “Job loss is a major source of defaults at all times, and job losses are running at extreme levels now.”



Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601213&sid=ay5857FfcnLQ&refer=home

already been paid.

To give time for mass modifications under Sheila Bair's plan. We'll see if that's done or not. If not, I can guarantee there'll be a tsunami of foreclosures because lots of defaults have been "on hold" since late Summer, waiting to see what would be proposed (and who would win the election).

Bair's "streamlined modifications" are officially to begin on Monday, but banks were supposed to be doing advance processing on them already. Instead, the banks are trying to get people to commit to the old kind of workouts which don't change any terms, by telling them they don't qualify for the new plan - knowing that this is coming. They suck.

under the radar?

...in general anyway. Better to wait until the storm really hits. There are many sellers who haven't capitulated yet and are still pricing at bubble levels.

of our country! STOP any and all foreclosures for the next 2 years! No more tent cities! They are showing up everywhere!

pumping even more bailout money into the banking industry.

the banks aren't lending, then why not have Uncle Sam allow existing owners and new buyers borrow from Uncle at say 1.5 % interest, which if you currently have a home, it would free up the money that the banks have tied up in homes (because they'd get paid off from Uncle) and allow buyers, with income levels to support the purchase to get more affordable housing? For those that refinance with Uncle, then they could lower their house payments which in turn might give them more money to SPEND and get things moving again.