Foreclosures based on joblessness
TEXT OF STORY
Bill Radke: Americans keep wondering when the housing market is going to bottom. Well, the foreclosure firm RealtyTrac reports this morning foreclosure filings dropped from April to May. But as Ashley Milne-Tyte reports, there’s not much reason to celebrate.
Ashley Milne-Tyte: Foreclosures dropped 6 percent from April’s record high. But May numbers were up 18 percent from the year before. It’s now the third-highest foreclosure month on record. Nevada, California and Florida still have the highest rates in the country.
But Rick Sharga of RealtyTrac says foreclosures are going up in states like Idaho, Oregon and Utah:
Rick Sharga: The majority of new foreclosures appear to be unemployment-related as opposed to the, you know, subprime adjustable rate loan problem that we’ve been dealing with the last couple of years.
Sharga says one in every 398 homes received a foreclosure filing last month. He says the government’s initiatives to keep people in their homes haven’t had enough time to kick in. RealtyTrac forecasts around four million foreclosure filings will be made this year. That’s up from three million last year.
I’m Ashley Milne-Tyte for Marketplace.
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