According to RealtyTrac, foreclosure filings for the July-September quarter rose to 635,159, representing 1 in every 196 households, marking a 30 percent increase from the second quarter, and nearly doubling the amount of filings in the same period last year.
The level of foreclosures rose in 45 of 50 states during the third quarter, and with $650 billion in adjustable-rate mortgages expected to reset between now and the end of 2008, the worst is likely not behind us.
“Given the number of loans due to reset through the middle of 2008, and the continuing weakness in home sales, we would expect foreclosure activity to remain high and even increase over the next year in many markets,” James Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac, said in a statement.
The good news is tons of refinancing into fixed mortgages over the next few years…
Credit Suisse research indicated that foreclosures will likely stay elevated until 2010, when they would eventually decline as good loans outnumbered the bad and credit markets stabilized.
The three states with the highest foreclosure rate during the third quarter were unsurprisingly Nevada, California and Florida.
Nevada reported one foreclosure filing for every 61 households, with 16,817 filings on 12,982 properties, a 22.8 percent increase in filings from the previous quarter and triple the number from the year-ago quarter.
California led the nation in total foreclosure filings with 148,147 on 94,772 properties, reporting one filing for every 88 households, an increase of 36 percent from the previous quarter and almost four times more than the year-ago period.
In Florida, foreclosure filings rose 51.5 percent from the previous quarter and more than doubled from the same quarter last year, with 86,465 foreclosure filings recorded on 60,992 properties during the third quarter.
Rounding out the top 10 states in foreclosure rates were Michigan, Ohio, Colorado, Arizona, Georgia, Indiana and Texas.
It’s important to note that foreclosure filings recorded by RealtyTrac include default notices, auction sales notices and bank repossessions, and not all result in foreclosure.