U.S. Foreclosure Filings Jump to Record in First Half

I was reading Bloomberg news today and according to Dan Levy and Brian Louis, "Mortgage foreclosures in the U.S. jumped to a record in the first half as rising interest rates and falling home prices battered homeowners.

Almost 926,000 foreclosure notices were filed, 56 percent more than a year earlier and the most since Irvine, California- based RealtyTrac started tracking the data in 2005. Foreclosures were the highest last month in California and Florida, where some home prices have fallen as much as 25 percent, and Ohio and Michigan, where the automotive industry fired more than 50,000 people in the past 10 years.

The jump in 30-year mortgage rates by more than a half a percentage point since May is putting a crimp on borrowers with the best credit just as a crackdown in subprime lending standards limits the pool of qualified buyers. Foreclosures also are increasing as the supply of unsold homes hit a record 4.43 million in May, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Foreclosure rates in ``most states remained substantially above last year's levels,'' RealtyTrac Chief Executive Officer James Saccacio said in a statement.

In June, defaults surged 87 percent to..." To read the rest of the article, please click here.