Market Report: 1Q Foreclosures Up 38%

[NMDemDist2]

Irvine, Calif., April 24, 2006/PRNewswire/—RealtyTrac, the leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties, today released its 2006 Q1 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, which showed that 323,102 properties nationwide entered some stage of foreclosure in the first quarter of 2006, a 38 percent increase from the previous quarter and a 72 percent year-over-year increase from the first quarter of 2005. The nation's quarterly foreclosure rate of one new foreclosure for every 358 U.S. households was higher than in any quarter of last year.

RealtyTrac publishes the largest national database of pre-foreclosure and foreclosure properties, with more than 600,000 properties in more than 2,500 counties across the country, and is the foreclosure data provider to MSN Real Estate, Yahoo! Real Estate, AOL Real Estate and Knight Ridder Online.

"The sharp increase in foreclosures in Q1 continues a steady upward trend that we've observed since the beginning of last year," said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. "Foreclosures have now increased in four consecutive quarters and are on track to go above 1.2 million in 2006, which would push the nation's annual foreclosure rate to more than 1 percent of U.S. households."

Saccacio noted that foreclosures actually dipped 13 percent from February to March, evidence that the nation's foreclosure rate could be leveling off after the long run-up.
"With the current market conditions, it's unlikely that foreclosures will return to the historically low levels they were at in recent years when interest rates hit rock bottom and home price appreciation skyrocketed in many areas of the country," he said. "But it's possible that foreclosures will flatten or even move a bit lower this spring if more buyers and investors enter the market, giving homeowners in distress a better chance of selling their properties to avoid going into default or foreclosure." .......

more at link http://www.hgtvpro.com/hpro/nw_econ_issues/article/0,2624,HPRO_24379_4646625,00.html

[Erika]

1. This is big and so sad. n/t