Foreclosure News Still Worrisome
Real estate analysts continue to worry about the state of foreclosure news in the United States as the number of filings rose for the third time within the five-month period that ended in July 2009. Apparently, more and more homeowners are finding it impossible to keep up with the monthly payments as more and more workers lose their jobs and the price of property declines. For the whole nation, the number of foreclosure filings was more than 360,000 and one out of 355 homeowners were at risk of losing property. Meanwhile, one out of 135 homeowners in Arizona could lose his or her home, proving that the condition of AZ foreclosures is worse than the current situation of the whole country. In contrast, the situation for MS foreclosures appears be better, with only one home out of 2,625 under threat of being foreclosed.
The rising number of employees who are being laid off or dismissed by their companies is one of the main reasons for depressing foreclosure news in the United States. A record number of jobs lost was reached in July 2009, when approximately 247,000 workers were notified that they no longer need to return to work. Being unemployed, borrowers are being forced to default on their payments for the mortgages. Another important reason for the negative foreclosure news is the low demand for homes, thus said homes are losing their value. The low demand is caused by investors having low confidence in the real estate market, the decline in the economy, and more rigid underwriting regulations. Therefore, many homeowners have the feeling that they should not be paying a loan amount that is higher than the actual value of their homes.
The National Association of Realtors has revealed that the median value for basic homes has slid down by 15.6 percent for the second quarter of 2009 to a price of 4,000. This is the lowest value since 1979, thus the discouraging foreclosure news continues throughout the country. Of course, one of the key reasons for the negative foreclosure news is the rise in unemployment, as it reached 9.4 percent in July 2009. As a result there were more than 126,000 bankruptcy filings by consumers. According to the American Bankruptcy Institute, there could be 1.4 million bankruptcies for the year 2009 as companies lay off workers and banks reject loan applications.
Foreclosure news may be a bit positive when it comes to loan modifications. The federal program has allowed about 235,000 homeowners to take advantage of loan restructuring. However, the number is still low when compared with the target of four million homeowners all over the United States.
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