Foreclosures Still Rising

Last Monday, a report released by ForeclosureS.com showed that the number of foreclosures is still rising based on the August data. Most of the homes in trouble were primarily located in three states: Florida, California and Arizona.

There were actually over 102,000 foreclosures for the said month, about 6 percent higher from July and 80 percent more from last year. Since January, mortgage lenders have already foreclosed 656,545 homes nationwide. That is a rate of 8.6 foreclosures for every 1,000 homes. Based on this trend, experts are predicting that there will be over 1 million repossessed homes by the end of 2008.

Although these figures are quite alarming, experts and analysts are more worried about the 1.45 homeowners who are facing pre-foreclosure actions since January of this year. These included notices for default, foreclosure sale and real-estate owned. If the homeowner manages to work something out with their lender, the foreclosure process can be stopped.

In related news, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported last week that there are about 9 percent of mortgages, out of the total outstanding loans, which are in default or already in foreclosure. Most of these mortgages originated from California and Florida.

Considering that one of the reasons that a homeowner loses his home to foreclosure is unemployment, it is quite depressing to also hear from the Department of Labor that the unemployment rate has risen from 5.7 percent to 6.1 percent for the month of August. This prompted economists to warn the public about the possibility of more foreclosure fillings in the months to come.

For troubled homeowners at risk of losing their home to foreclosure, you should immediately speak with your lender. If you are having a hard time dealing with your lender, you can always go to a foreclosure counseling center in order to receive guidance. Many foreclosure counselors have been acting as mediators between homeowner and lender, in order to arrive at an agreement beneficial for both parties.