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Why foreclosures hit a record high
A foreclosure sign hangs in front of a home for sale.
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Today, we learned home foreclosures in April hit a record high for a second straight month. RealtyTrac reports more than 340,000 properties received foreclosure filings, default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions. That's a 32-percent increase over last year. The latest from Marketplace's Jennifer Collins.
JENNIFER COLLINS: Billie Jo Downing has been selling homes in Colorado for 15 years. For the last three, she's been specializing in helping people at risk of foreclosure. Ask her to add up her clients.
BILLIE JO DOWNING: Oh goodness.
About 40 clients a month and they keep multiplying.
DOWNING: I think there's a perception out there that it's people who, oh they just want to get out of their own bad decision making. That's not what we see.
She sees middle-class people who were keeping up with their payments until they lost their jobs or got hit with divorce. Rick Sharga of RealtyTrac says unemployment is just one of reason foreclosure numbers are so high. But he says there's another: Banks and states delayed thousands of foreclosures to give people extra time to make payments. But now that time is up, and those foreclosures are hitting the market.
RICK SHARGA: We have yet to see any state or industry moratorium that hasn't just resulted in essentially a delaying of the inevitable.
Sharga says he expects foreclosures to stay high until the job market improves and home sales rebound.
I'm Jennifer Collins for Marketplace.
Foreclosures hitting a new high are no surprise, and we will continue to see this type of news throughout the year.
Many banks had a moratorium on foreclosures for the first few months of 2009 as they waited to hear what the Obama administration was going to do with regards to a housing bailout.
Because fewer banks were foreclosing, there was a back-log of homes that needed to be foreclosed but weren't. As these banks restarted their foreclosure processes, we'll see a higher foreclosure rate over the next few months due to all the expected foreclosures, plus the back-log coming in at the same time.
Further, unemployment continues to rise in the country. If this trend continues, it will contribute to a continued rise in foreclosures. We will continue move from foreclosures as a result of bad loans (over extended borrowers, ARMs, falling housing prices) to foreclosures as a result of job loss.
Jeremy Brandt
CEO
1-800-CashOffer
http://www.cashoffer.com
Durbin's conclusion that banks "frankly own the place" is flatly wrong. The Banks only own ALL the Senate Republicans and the following 12 Senate Democrats (who voted with the Big Banks and against their own constituents to kill cramdown legislation which would have helped 1.7 MILLION people save their homes). Please let these Democrats know what you think about their siding with the “trickle down†GOP, and allowing the Big Banks to use YOUR BAILOUT DOLLARS TO LOBBY AGAINST YOU:
1. Max Baucus (D-Montana)
511 Hart Senate Office Bldg.
Washington, D.C. 20510
(202) 224-2651(Office)
(202) 224-9412 (Fax)
http://baucus.senate.gov/contact/emailForm.cfm?subj=issue
2. Michael Bennett (D-Colorado)
702 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-5852
http://bennet.senate.gov/public/?p=TransitionalSiteEmailSenatorBennet
3. Robert Byrd (D-West Virginia)
311 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Telephone: (202) 224-3954
Fax: (202) 228-0002
http://byrd.senate.gov/contacts/
4. Tom Carper (D-Delaware)
513 Hart Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-2441
Fax: (202) 228-2190
http://carper.senate.gov/contact/
5. Byron Dorgan (D-North Dakota)
322 Hart Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
Phone (202) 224-2551
Fax (202) 224-1193
http://dorgan.senate.gov/contact/contact_form.cfm
6. Tim Johnson (D-South Dakota)
136 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Voice: (202) 224-5842
Fax: (605) 332-2824
http://johnson.senate.gov/contact/
7. Mary Landrieu (D-Louisiana)
328 Hart Senate Building
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
Voice: (202)224-5824
Fax:(202) 224-9735
http://landrieu.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm
8. Blanche Lincoln (D-Arkansas)
355 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-4843
Fax (202) 228-1371
http://lincoln.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm
9. Ben Nelson (D-Nebraska)
720 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Tel: (202) 224-6551
Fax: (202) 228-0012
http://bennelson.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm
10. Mark Pryor (D-North Dakota)
255 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Phone: (202) 224-2353
Fax: (202) 228-0908
http://pryor.senate.gov/contact/
11. Arlen Specter (D-Pennsylvania)
711 Hart Building
Washington , DC 20510
Main: 202-224-4254
Fax: 202-228-1229
http://specter.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.ContactForm
12. Jon Tester (D-Montana)
724 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-2604
Phone: (202) 224-2644
Fax: (202) 224-8594
http://tester.senate.gov/Contact/index.cfm
