The Foreclosure Report

Loan Resets Spur Defaults

Some foreclosure reports on regions around the US. "Nearly 30,000 Florida properties are currently in some stage of foreclosure, said Alexis McGee, president of ForeclosureS.com. McGee also reports that around a third of those properties are in south Florida."

"In Georgia, the foreclosure pace is almost double what it was in May 2005. Since home sales are slowing, homeowners are not able to quickly unload adjustable rate mortgages they can no longer afford, which leads to more foreclosures."

"'In Atlanta, for example, the inventory of unsold homes had grown by 28.2% to 43,862 over the last six months,' McGee said. 'People bought homes they really couldn't afford, and now they're losing them as these loans reset to market rates and they can't find affordable refinancing options.'"

"Some cities in the midwest are also a hotbed of foreclosure activity, according to foreclosureS.com, which is reporting that Chicago's foreclosure activity is more than twice the national average. More than half of the 27,000 properties in foreclosure in Illinois are in Cook County, which includes Chicago."

"Defaults continue to surge in Massachusetts. 3,074 Massachusetts properties went into foreclosure in the last 60 days, as of July 11. Home prices in Massachusetts are off about 4 percent from their 2005 peak, the company said."

"The drop in property values 'makes it harder for folks being squeezed by rising mortgage payments to sell their way out of foreclosure in an orderly way,' said McGee."

posted by Ben Jones @ 1:07 PM