73,000 homes lost to foreclosure in May

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Source: CNN

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The housing crisis grew worse in May, as more than 73,000 American families lost their homes to bank repossessions, up a staggering 158% from the 28,548 households that were dispossessed in May 2007.

Foreclosure filings of all kinds, including default notices, notices of sheriff's sales and bank repossessions, were up 48% from May 2007, according to the latest release from RealtyTrac, the online marketer of foreclosed properties. Filings increased 7% from April.

"May was the 29th straight month we've seen a year-over-year increase," RealtyTrac's CEO James Saccacio said in a statement.

The report follows months of increasingly gloomy housing market conditions with home prices, existing home sales and new housing starts all plummeting. The S&P Case/Shiller Home Price Index posted a record 14.1% decline in national home prices for the 12 months ending March 31, while April's existing-home sales were down 17.5% year over year.

Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/13/real_estate/foreclosures_may/index.htm?cnn=yes

[OhioChick]

1. Wow...

Expect more to come.

K&R

[xchrom]

2. recommend

[sarcasmo]

3. This relates to the jobless which along with health care should be the only two things

Obama talks about at the debates. Mcsame will keep saying the word War, War, War.

[krkaufman]

7. sub-prime mortgages were just the tip of the iceberg

As the economy slows and job losses escalate, our record debt load is going to start hitting all mortgage holders.

[Xenotime]

12. True. Even if you have a fixed rate. They will look for a way to adjust it.

[krkaufman]

13. Along with the fact that people with regular mortgages will start having payment issues ...

... when the wave of job losses coming with the slowdown and credit crunch laps at their door.

[Lorentz]

14. A fixed rate is a fixed rate. It's illegal to adjust it.

[ElectricGrid]

4. And probably at least 60,000 foolish loans...

that never should have been granted.

[dysfunctional press]

5. not all of those foreclosures represent a "home" being lost.

in many of the hardest hit areas- phoenix, miami, las vegas, etc...a LOT of the houses/condos being forclosed were built on speculation that didn't pay off.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

6. Many stories in the last few days about the "vultures"...

...swooping down as the second round of "speculators" try to scoop up these "bargains" while they're hot.

[Lorentz]

9. They probably listen to Air America...

... because they're running all kinds of ads about seminars to learn how to buy foreclosed homes and make money in the down market, etc....

[Psephos]

8. Looks like a market-based windfall for first-time buyers with good credit

and that's not all bad.

Meanwhile, the journalist in the O.P. story seems to think that foreclosures are happening to "American families," when the majority of them are happening to flippers, speculators, and "creative" financial statement writers.

[1Hippiechick]

31. It is a boon for 1st-time buyers, but my son & his wife had mixed emotions about the house they just

bought south of DC - it was a foreclosure.....

[Delphinus]

10. Interesting spin that ABC

put on this story this evening.

I had heard it on the radio earlier today, but when ABC talked about it tonight, they just mentioned the filings were up 48%.

[Carnea]

11. Well there not lost they changed hands.... It's not like a flood... NT

Thousands of poor people are evicted for not paying rent every month and nobody says a word. But Homeowners decide to leave their recently purchased house cause the value went down and they are all victims.

I'm sure there are many people suffering and loses their houses do to forces out of their control. But I know and have seen many simply walking away taking advantage of the situation.

[fasttense]

15. I love how some like to read into the story and find a silver lining where one does not exist.

The story said (and I quote) "more than 73,000 American families lost their homes to bank repossessions."

It did not say construction or building firms. It did not say it was offset by people shopping for bargains. These are American FAMILIES losing their homes because our economy sucks.

That comes to 2,355 families a day losing their homes, simple, direct, self evident. Now put your Pollyanna spin on that.

[Dharmacrat]

16. U.S. foreclosure filings surge 48% in May

Source: AP

U.S. foreclosure filings surge 48% in May
Saturday, June 14, 2008
By Alan Zibel, The Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- Soaring foreclosures are continuing to raise questions about the mortgage industry's claims that lenders are making a dent in the housing crisis.

Foreclosure filings last month were up nearly 50 percent compared with a year earlier. Nationwide, 261,255 homes received at least one foreclosure-related filing in May, up 48 percent from 176,137 in the same month last year and up 7 percent from April, foreclosure listing service RealtyTrac Inc. said yesterday.

The latest grim foreclosure news comes as criticism mounts that efforts by government and the mortgage industry to stem the tide of foreclosures aren't keeping up with the rising number of troubled homeowners. Critics say a Bush administration-backed mortgage industry coalition, dubbed Hope Now, is falling far short.

"It's clear that these voluntary efforts in and of themselves cannot really make a dent," said Allen Fishbein, director of credit and housing policy at the Consumer Federation of America. "Government intervention is going to be necessary."

Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Economy.com and an adviser to Republican John McCain's presidential campaign, wrote earlier this week that "the Bush administration's efforts to encourage loan modifications and delay foreclosures are being completely overwhelmed."



Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08166/889855-28.stm?cmpid=business.xml

[Dreamer Tatum]

17. Not your fault, but this is a misleading headline

Saying that a 48% increase in May foreclosures YOY is not as shocking or surprising when viewed next to the report that April 2008 FCs were up 65% YOY.

In fact, one could argue that foreclosures are actually slowing, not surging. You would need more than two data points to be sure.

Even one foreclosure is too many, but this headline comes from the Chicken Little School of Journalism.

[AP]

21. I doesn't look like they're slowing. They're up 7% from April to May.

The declining year-over-year rate of increase is because there was a very large 19% jump from April to May '07. And it looks like the number of foreclosures has tripled from 2 years ago.

Here are the 2007 numbers:

NEW YORK (Reuters) — Home foreclosures in May jumped 90 percent from a year earlier, reflecting a poor spring housing market and foreshadowing even higher levels later in 2007, real estate data firm RealtyTrac said Tuesday.
The May foreclosures - a sum of default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions - totaled 176,137, up 19 percent from April, the firm said in its May 2007 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report.
“After a barely perceptible dip in April, foreclosure activity roared back with a vengeance in May,” James Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac, said in a statement.
“Such strong activity in the midst of the typical spring buying season could foreshadow even higher foreclosure levels later in the year,” said Saccacio. “Certainly not every community nationwide is seeing an increase in foreclosures, but foreclosed properties are becoming more commonplace and adding to the downward pressure on home prices in many areas.”
RealtyTrac said there was a national foreclosure rate of one foreclosure filing for every 656 U.S. households during May.

http://blog.foreclosuresdaily.com/?p=101

[Dreamer Tatum]

26. Noted, and thank you, that should have been the headline nt

[bluerum]

23. 48% yoy indicates a substantial increase in the foreclosure rate in a years time.

One could argue that foreclosures are slowing, if one was myopically pedantic. One could also reasonably say that some monthly variation is to be expected. There have been many efforts to put off foreclosure in favor of refinancing options and other forms of debt relaxation as the foreclosure problem has emerged into the spotlight. Finance companies want to look like warm fuzzy good guys, not ogres.

The fact is that foreclosures are way up. People are having a hard time paying their bills.

Although I do agree that the headline is a bit sensationalist.

[Dreamer Tatum]

25. It's still misleading

There is NO DOUBT that FCs are up. The implication from the article is that they are suddenly going through the roof, which they really aren't anymore.

Example:

My daughter grew 3 inches from April 2007 to April 2008. When I compare her height in May 2008 to May 2007, I would also report a surge in her growth,
though her growth from April 2008 to May 2008 could be as little as zero.

or

I made $5000 in commissions in April 2007, $6000 in May 2007, $10000 in April 2008, and $8000 in May 2008. Do you see how YOY I "surged" in both months, but I actually fell from April to May 2008?


Again, one FC is too many. But one misleading headline is too many, too.

[AP]

28. The headline could have been Foreclosures are highest in X yrs and tripled since May '06

which would have been more alarming. 7% is a big jump in itself.

What would have been misleading is to have to have tried to have spin "rate of increase is declining" into positive news when you're comparing a surge from a year ago to less of a surge, but still big one month increase this year.

[Dreamer Tatum]

29. True all dat

I would not, at this stage, try to say that they're increasing at a decreasing rate.

I think we are all in agreement.

[pansypoo53219]

18. can you say 'the bank got my farm'?

we are looking at a depression. thanks georgee. or should we blame GREENSPAN! who helped make georgee possible in 1999/2000. he fucking manufactured a slowdown. and PANDERED to georgee and his fucking tax cuts.

[superconnected]

19. You can thank the republicans for removing the interest cap on loans in the late 80's.

Something Senator Kennedy fought to keep in place.

[SpiralHawk]

20. The putrid fruit of republiconomics...

Thanks a pantload 'conservative' republicons...

[Voltaire99]

22. House bubble - new suckers = pyramid collapses

You might call it the new math, except that it's a very old game.

[Bigmack]

24. Where are people living?

I've read the above posts, and I agree that a lot of repos might be spec houses that didn't "flip", but there is still a basic question about our whole housing picture.

Houses were/are out of reach for large numbers of our population, the schools continue to graduate young people into the world, and now the economy is hurting. Where are people living?

Rentals in our area are expensive and the vacancy rate is unchanged, so I don't think people are moving from their repos into apartments. Housing prices are now down to the mid-$300K level, but that's out of reach of most people, and the banks are very slow to finance.

Where are people living?

[CountAllVotes]

27. maybe they are moving in with relatives (?)

I just noticed this a.m. that the flag waver across the street seems to have a new occupant at his house. It is an old woman that appears not healthy. Maybe this is the mother of the guy or his wife's mother I thought.

Hmmm ... :think:

:dem:

[txwhitedove]

30. Recent approval for an FHA loan has me hunting for homes....

under $80K here in Houston. There is a glut of foreclosed homes, empty homes not yet up for sale, trashed homes, homes that were loved but only halfway through remodeling, and abandoned kitties in abandoned homes. FHA only allows $5,000 repair escrow, and won't approve many of the houses. I don't have enough down payment right now to qualify for a conventional loan. Who is buying these houses? Investors, speculators? Then what? Do they put in granite counter tops and fancy flooring, then double the price.... America needs "affordable housing", not jacked up mini-McMansions. I was told to "not let this one get away" after turning down one small, clean, affordable house, because I didn't want to buy one I didn't love. The next day a beautiful home, twice as big went up for sale in a better neighborhood at lower price. This reminds me of Houston after the oil bust in the mid 1980's, many abandoned homes.