Foreclosure news in the United States continue to be worrisome as the number of foreclosure filings increased for the third time during a span of only five months until July 2009. Apparently, more and more homeowners are finding it impossible to keep up with the monthly payments as more and more workers lose their jobs and the price of property declines. The number of filings related to foreclosure in the whole country was more than 360,000, thereby resulting in one out of 355 homeowners being given foreclosure notice. Meanwhile, the status of AZ foreclosures was worse than that of the country because in Arizona, one out of 135 homeowners is facing the possibility of his or her home being taken. On the other hand, the condition of MS foreclosures was better with one out of 2,625 homes facing repossession.
One of the primary reasons for negative foreclosure news in the United States is the increasing number of workers who no longer have jobs. A record number of jobs lost was reached in July 2009, when approximately 247,000 workers were notified that they no longer need to return to work. Without jobs, homeowners have no choice but to stop payment for their mortgages. Another key reason for the downtrend in foreclosure news is the decline in prices for homes because of the very low demand. The low demand is caused by investors having low confidence in the real estate market, the decline in the economy, and more rigid underwriting regulations. Therefore, many homeowners have the feeling that they should not be paying a loan amount that is higher than the actual value of their homes.
According to the National Association of Realtors, the median price for single-family homes has decreased by 15.6 percent to a value of 4,000 during the second quarter of 2009. This is the lowest value since 1979, thus the discouraging foreclosure news continues throughout the country. Of course, one of the key reasons for the negative foreclosure news is the rise in unemployment, as it reached 9.4 percent in July 2009. As a result there were more than 126,000 bankruptcy filings by consumers. The American Bankruptcy Institute has warned that the total number of bankruptcies could reach 1.4 million for 2009, as banks refuse to issue loans and companies cut down on labor costs.
Meanwhile, loan modifications may provide us with welcome foreclosure news. The federal program has allowed about 235,000 homeowners to take advantage of loan restructuring. However, the actual target is four million homeowners in the whole country, so the number is still low.
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