Foreclosure rates surge, biggest jump in 5 years

LOS ANGELES – A record number of U.S. homes were lost to foreclosure in the first three months of this year, a sign banks are starting to wade through the backlog of troubled home loans at a faster pace, according to a new report.

RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday that the number of U.S. homes taken over by banks jumped 35 percent in the first quarter from a year ago. In addition, households facing foreclosure grew 16 percent in the same period and 7 percent from the last three months of 2009.

More homes were taken over by banks and scheduled for a foreclosure sale than in any quarter going back to at least January 2005, when RealtyTrac began reporting the data, the firm said.

"We're right now on pace to see more than 1 million bank repossessions this year," said Rick Sharga, a RealtyTrac senior vice president.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100415/ap_on_bi_ge/us_foreclosure_rates

that run the banks noticed that the realty markets were starting to improve they figured that they could make a few bucks on foreclosures again.

At least that's my pet theory.

Who needs a house when the DOW is over 11,000?

Guess not...

Actually, the American Dream is beoke in a million little pieces.

and it's going to be bigger than the last one. Alt-A and Option ARM loans, as well as subprime, so they're not going to be able to blame the poor folks this time around.

Home ownership, the American Dream.