Record Foreclosure Activity in 2009 Could Have Been Worse
A record 2.8 million U.S. properties received foreclosure notices in 2009, up 21 percent from 2008 and up 120 percent from 2007, according to the RealtyTrac 2009 Year-End U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, released Thursday. But as bad as that sounds, RealtyTrac CEO James Saccacio believes it could have been worse if not for foreclosure-processing delays that occurred during the year.
“As bad as the 2009 numbers are, they probably would have been worse if not for legislative and industry-related delays in processing delinquent loans,” Saccacio said in a press release, “After peaking in July with over 361,000 homes receiving a foreclosure notice, we saw four straight monthly decreases driven primarily by short-term factors: trial loan modifications, state legislation extending the foreclosure process and an overwhelming volume of inventory clogging the foreclosure pipeline."
Nevada, Arizona and Florida posted the three highest state foreclosure rates for the year, and the four states with the largest foreclosure numbers -- California, Florida, Arizona and Illinois -- accounted for more than 50 percent of the national total in 2009.
View state-level data.
Per the comment below from Tom Lawler, here are the December 2009 numbers.
