One in 8 U.S. households behind on their mortgage or in foreclosure

[G_j]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090305/us_nm/us_usa_housing_foreclosures;

NEW YORK (Reuters) – About one in every eight U.S. households, a record share, ended 2008 behind on their mortgage payments or in the
foreclosure process as job losses intensified a housing crisis spawned by lax lending practices, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Thursday.

With unemployment at a 16-1/2-year high and rising, more borrowers will be late paying or fall into foreclosure this year, said the group's chief economist Jay Brinkmann.

"While California, Florida, Nevada, Arizona and Michigan continue to dominate the delinquency numbers, some of the sharpest increases we saw last quarter in loans 90 days or more delinquent were in Louisiana, New York, Georgia, Texas and Mississippi, signs of the spreading impact of the recession," he said.
U.S. President Barack Obama's $275 billion housing stimulus program will standardize modifications for distressed loans and pave the way for more refinancing.

That should smooth differences caused by various moratoria by states and companies that temporarily curbed the surge in foreclosures in the fourth quarter, Brinkmann said.
"But keep in mind that there are three drivers to the housing problem, and this program of course addresses mostly the first one," relating to loan structure, underwriting quality and fraud, Brinkmann said.

The two other problems still loom large -- an oversupply caused by overbuilding and foreclosures, and unemployment.
Having one in eight households late paying or in foreclosure is "unacceptable in a country like ours," said Nicholas Bratsofolis, senior managing director of structured refinance at mortgage bank LendAmerica in Melville, New York.
"Instead of wringing our hands, I think we should start utilizing the tools that the government has given to us to remedy the ills that are facing many of these homeowners," he said. The administration housing rescue won't be a quick fix, however, he added.

A record 11.18 percent of loans on one-to-four unit residences were at least one payment past due or in the foreclosure process in 2008.
The delinquency rate jumped 2.06 percentage points from a year ago to a record 7.88 percent. The share of loans in the foreclosure process leaped 1.26 percentage point in the year to a record 3.30 percent. MBA started tracking the data in 1972.
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[Greyhound]

1. Wow, just incredible. K&R