By KARA McGUIRE, Star Tribune
Despite an uptick in prices and a more balanced supply of homes on the market -- signs that the housing market may have turned the corner -- foreclosures continued to increase across the nation in the first quarter.
During the first three months of 2010, 16 percent more households received a foreclosure-related filing such as a default notice or a scheduled sheriff's sale than in the first quarter of 2009, according to RealtyTrac's foreclosure market report. Foreclosure-related filings rose 7 percent compared with the last quarter of 2009. Ten states -- led by California, Florida and Arizona -- account for nearly three-quarters of the nation's foreclosure activity, the report found.
In Minnesota, one in every 253 households received a foreclosure-related notice in the first quarter -- an increase of 28 percent over last year's first quarter and flat with the fourth quarter of 2009. Still, foreclosure-related notices were 13 percent lower than they were in the third quarter last year, when filings peaked in the state. Minnesota is 26th-highest in the nation for the rate of foreclosure-related notices received.
Ed Nelson, spokesman for the Minnesota Homeownership Center, has said he expects that the number of homeowners who ultimately lose their homes to foreclosure will be similar to what was seen in 2009, when 23,019 foreclosures occurred. That was down 12 percent from 2008.
Separately, the government's Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) announced Wednesday that 57,000 more homeowners had their mortgages modified in March, bringing the total of troubled borrowers with HAMP loan modifications to more than 1.1 million.
No comments:
Post a Comment