US Foreclosure Filings Up 121 Percent

The numbers aren’t great - U.S. foreclosure filings are up 121 percent over last year. They rose 14 percent in the second quarter, the eighth consecutive quarterly climb. These numbers are according to RealtyTrac and the figure is a total of default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions between April and June.

The government is trying to help by passing a mortgage rescue plan, which includes $4 billion in grants to local communities to buy up foreclosed properties that may be negatively affecting the communities. Fairfax County recently approved such a program, but Loudoun County is yet to do so though they’ve been discussing it for a while now.

The good news for us in Loudoun County is that most of the activity is coming from a small number of states such as Nevada, California, Florida, Ohio, Arizona and Michigan. Yes, the DC metro area including Loudoun County has been hit hard. But there are lots of investors and traditional home buyers buying up foreclosure/bank-owned properties, which is helping to keep the inventory down and softening the blow a bit around here as compared to other areas of the country.

Graph courtesy of RealtyTrac

Good and Bad News In The World Of Foreclosures

There’s good news and bad news in the national and local Loudoun County foreclosure world. You probably want to hear the bad news first, right? Ok, here goes…

Bad news

• Nationwide, foreclosure filings in June 2008 were up 53% over June 2007
• Economists project 2.5 million homes nationwide will enter the foreclosure process this year, up from 1.5 million in 2007
• Analysts say the mortgage industry’s effort to assist troubled borrowers is being overwhelmed by the magnitude of the foreclosure crisis

Good news

• Nationwide, foreclosure filings are down 3.4 percent in June over May
• The local Loudoun County foreclosure market has shown signs of stabilization over the past 6 months
• The new Virginia law that went into affect July 1 may help some financially-stressed Loudoun County homeowners moving forward

Yes, the bad news is pretty bad. But remember that the bad news is nationwide and that the Washington, DC metro area, including Loudoun County, is about 6 to 9 months ahead of the rest of the country.