While there have been positive reports recently about the housing market, specifically existing home sales and, to some extent, a stabilization of prices, unfortunately there is plenty of bad news on the housing market as well. For one, the number of foreclosures in the U.S. remains at near record highs.
RealtyTrac(R) released their August 2009 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report (TM), which shows there were foreclosure filings on 358,47` U.S. properties during the month, a decrease of 1 percent from July, but still an increase of nearly 18 percent from August 2008. The report also shows the sobering fact that one in every 357 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing in August.
Nevada, Florida and California have the highest state foreclosure rates.
In Nevada, one in every 62 housing units received a foreclosure filing in August making it the state with the highest foreclosure rate in spite of the fact this was an 8 percent decrease from the previous month. A total of 17,902 Nevada properties received a foreclosure filing during August, an increase of 53 percent from August, 2008.
Florida was the state with the 2nd highest rate of foreclosure activity with one in every 140 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing, and California came in 3rd with one in every 144 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing.
Other states with foreclosure rates ranking among the nation’s 10 highest were Arizona, Michigan, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Georgia and Illinois.
In Vermont, one in every 9,437 housing units received a foreclosure filing in August, making it the state with the lowest foreclosure rate. North Dakota, with one in 9,411 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing, had the second lowest foreclosure rate and West Virginia with one in 6,173 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing, came in 3rd.
Other states with foreclosure rates ranking amount the nation’s 10 lowest were Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota, Mississippi,Maine and Iowa.
The rate of foreclosures, as well as the record number of people underwater on their mortgages or seriously delinquent on their mortgages, are the issues that concern me and overshadow the recent positive news on the housing market. In my opinion we are not going to see the bottom of the real estate market, nor be headed to a recovery, until foreclosure and delinquency rates ease substantially.
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