Foreclosures Affecting Hundreds of Thousands of People
Government statistics show that more than 243,000 people lost their homes to foreclosure in the months of July, August, and September 2008. That averages out to about 2,700 Americans losing their home every single day! The number of filings for foreclosure is much higher - more than 300,000 in August alone.
“In August the total number of U.S. properties that received foreclosure filings as well as the national foreclosure rate were both the highest we’ve seen in any month since we began issuing our report in January 2005; however, the annual increase of 27 percent was actually substantially lower than in previous months this year, when it was hovering around 50 to 65 percent,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “The lower annual percentage increase this month is due to a big spike in activity last August — particularly in default activity. Over the past few months we’ve seen annual increases in default activity and auction activity moderating, and that trend continued in August, with default activity up just 10 percent from a year ago and auction activity up 7 percent from a year ago.”
The top three states with the most foreclosure filings in Agusut were Nevada (1 out of every 91 households), California (1 out of every 130 households), and Arizona (1 out of every 185 households). Other states with high foreclosure filing rates include Florida, Michigan, Georgia, Ohio, Colorado, Illinois and Indiana.
Because California is so big, it’s forecluse activity accounts for 1/3rd of the entire nations foreclosure activity at this time.
If you are one of many Americans facing foreclosure, you can find advice on how to proceed from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). You can visit HUD by clicking here. And click here to go directly to their article “Guide to Avoiding Foreclosure“.
I feel so badly for the people who have lost their homes and are suffering from this crisis, on the other hand they should have budgeted better to avoid forecloser .
Unfortunately, foreclosure can affect thousands of families. There are many ways that the homeowner can avoid foreclosure by taking advantage of government grants, stimulus packages and of course by refinancing their home and taking advantage of loan modifcation. Community programs are essential while we try to reduce the instances of foreclosure in the community.