Meltdown Continues For Housing Market

I wrote on Monday that Alameda foreclosures were up, and since that post one more foreclosed home was added to the market. Now the news that the Nation's forclosure woes continue to get worse leaves everyone wondering when this housing downturn will correct itself. RealtyTrac is reporting that foreclosures continuing to set record numbers, California foreclosures are up 14.52 percent over the the first six months of 2008.

Nationally, there were 1.9 million foreclosure filings in the first six months of this year, a 15% increase from the first six months of 2008 this means that one in 84 homes received a foreclosure filing in the first half of the year. Now this does not mean that all these homes are now owned by banks, it means people fall into a range from being behind on their payments to being in default.

The escalating foreclosure crisis affected more than 1.5 million home owners (Jan. to June) and the increase can be a result of more people losing their jobs and now unable to pay their monthly mortgage bills. More than 336,000 households received at least one foreclosure-related notice in June. That works out to one in every 380 U.S. homes. This was the fourth-straight month in which more than 300,000 households receiving a foreclosure filing, which includes default notices and several other legal notices that homeowners receive before they finally lose their homes. Banks repossessed more than 79,000 homes in June, up from about 65,000 a month earlier.

The news shows that govement intervention with moratoriums at both the National and State level to encourage the lending industry to prevent foreclosures by handing out $50 billion in subsidies, the housing meltdown continues to spread. Experts don't expect foreclosures to peak until the middle of next year.

According to RealtyTrac, Foreclosure filings rose more than 33 percent in June compared with the same month last year and were up nearly 5 percent from May. Looking at the numbers on a state-by-state basis, Nevada had the nation's highest foreclosure rate in the first half of the year, with more than 6 percent of all households receiving a filing. Arizona was No. 2, followed by Florida, California and Utah.

The bright news being reported today is jobless claims are down.

The video is a Bloomberg Interview and discussion with Rick Sharga of the Realty Trac.