Home Foreclosures Up 18%

home foreclosures

Home foreclosures were up 18% in August vs. August 2008 as reported by RealtyTrac of Irvine, California.

One in every 357 U.S. households with loans got a foreclosure filing in August.

RealtyTrac is revising up its estimate for filings this year and now expects a more prolonged foreclosure crisis.

Some 3.4 million households will get a filing this year, up from the prior estimate of 3 million to 3.2 million, and sharply higher than 2.3 million filings last year.

If the forecast is realized, it will be more than four times the filings in 2005, before the deepest housing crash since the Great Depression began.

Rick Sharga, senior vice president at RealtyTrac said:

“We had been thinking that this year would be the peak, but at the rate things are going right now, it’s appearing more likely that late 2010 might be the peak year before things start to moderate. I don’t expect it to be that 2010 will peak and 2011 will be the wonderful land of Oz.”

California REOs dropped 32 percent from July, but the state continued to post the highest overall total with 92,326 properties with loans getting a filing.

RealtyTrac’s James Saccacio said:

“We also saw a record high number of properties either entering default or being scheduled for a public foreclosure auction for the first time.”