Foreclosures reached an all-time record recently

A latest RealtyTrac report says that the number of foreclosures had hit an all-time high in 2009. About 3,957,643 foreclosures that included default notices besides bank repossessions were noted in 2,824,674 homes. That meant an increase of 21 per cent from ’08 and a 120 per cent increase from that of ’07.

According to the report, one in every 45 houses has got one foreclosure filing. In fact, foreclosures were reported on 349,519 homes.

James J. Saccacio, the CEO of RealtyTrac, says, “As bad as the 2009 numbers are, they probably would have been worse if not for legislative and industry-related delays in processing delinquent loans.”

“After peaking in July with over 361,000 homes receiving a foreclosure notice, we saw four straight monthly decreases driven primarily by short-term factors: trial loan modifications, state legislation extending the foreclosure process and an overwhelming volume of inventory clogging the foreclosure pipeline.

“Despite all the delays, foreclosure activity still hit a record high for our report in 2009, capped off by a substantial increase in December,” Saccacio said. “In the long term a massive supply of delinquent loans continues to loom over the housing market, and many of those delinquencies will end up in the foreclosure process in 2010 and beyond as lenders gradually work their way through the backlog.”

The worst affected regions are California, Nevada, Arizona and Florida. More than 10 per cent of the homes are foreclosed here. In Nevada, foreclosures increased by 27 per cent as compared to the previous month. In the last half of ’09, foreclosures were down by 37 per cent.

Last year, foreclosures were also at an all-time high in Arizona. Above 6 per cent of homes got one foreclosure filing. In fact, foreclosures are also high in the following regions of Utah (2.93 percent), Georgia (2.68 percent), Idaho (2.72 percent), Illinois (2.50 percent), and Colorado (2.37 percent).

Florida has the US’ second largest foreclosure filings. The number increased by 34 per cent when compared to ’08. What worries economists is that many of the homes are “under water” meaning that the owners owe more on these homes than they are actually worth. As a result, many would leave the homes as they lose the motivation to pay for a property that actually has no worth.

In Arizona, foreclosure activity increased by 40 per cent from that of December. In Arizona, 163,210 foreclosures were reported.

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