US foreclosures hit record high for second month

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US home foreclosures reached a record pace in April for the second consecutive month, underscoring the deepening crisis in the housing market, private data showed Wednesday.

Foreclosure filings, which includes home-loan default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions, were reported on 342,038 US homes in April, said RealtyTrac, an online firm specializing in foreclosure properties.

The record-high rate highlighted the problems homeowners are facing amid surging unemployment and tight credit as the world’s largest economy struggles in its second year of recession.

The rise was less than 1.0 percent from the previous month but marked a steep 32 percent increase from April 2008.

Yet the April numbers showed a deceleration from March, when foreclosure activity jumped 17 percent from February and was up 46 percent from a year ago.

One in every 374 US housing units received a foreclosure filing in April, RealtyTrac said, the highest monthly foreclosure rate since the firm began issuing its report in January 2005.

“Much of this activity is at the initial stages of foreclosure — the default and auction stages — while bank repossessions, or REOs, were down on a monthly and annual basis to their lowest level since March 2008,” said James Saccacio, chief executive of RealtyTrac.

“This suggests that many lenders and servicers are beginning foreclosure proceedings on delinquent loans that had been delayed by legislative and industry moratoria,” he added, referring to government and private sector efforts to help at-risk homeowners keep their homes.

Nevada, Florida, California and Arizona, so-called “Sun Belt” states where home sales boomed before the real-estate bubble burst in 2006, had the highest foreclosure rates.

Those four states alone accounted for 56.6 percent of all foreclosures in the 50 states last month, RealtyTrac said.

Nevada remained the hardest hit, with one in every 68 homes receiving a foreclosure filing — more than five times the national average.

Total foreclosure activity in Nevada was up 111 percent from April 2008.

Las Vegas, Nevada, continued to post the highest foreclosure rate in the country among metropolitan areas with populations of at least 200,000.

One in every 56 Las Vegas homes received a foreclosure filing during the month. That was almost seven times the national average.