In the early days of the foreclosure crisis, the hardest-hit states were ones where building booms had been the biggest—California, Nevada and Florida topped most foreclosure lists. But now, according to some recent information, it seems that the worst foreclosure woes are no longer restricted to these area of the country.
In fact, the latest figures on the housing market from real estate data company RealtyTrac show that foreclosures are picking up speed in areas of the country that had previously resisted the trend. Here’s a look at some of the latest numbers and what they might mean:
- Foreclosures are reportedly up in the Midwest and Northwest. Specifically, foreclosure rates increased in Illinois, Utah, Idaho and Colorado in the second quarter and these states are now among the top 10 for foreclosures in the nation.
- In 19 states, the number of homes seized by lenders at least doubled, according to sources.
- In seven states, it seems that the number of homes seized by lenders more than tripled.
- In California, new defaults are reportedly down 43 percent; in Florida, they’ve dropped by 37 percent; and in Nevada, they’re down by 27 percent. These figures may sound encouraging, but they likely indicate only that the market is bottoming out.
- In July, sources note that 325,229 American homes were informed that default, auction or bank repossession actions would begin on their houses (this represents a four percent increase from June but a 10 percent dip from this time last year).
Moving Toward a Solution
The New York Times recently ran a piece that discussed some aspects of the Obama administration’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an organization designed to better regulate consumer products and services. The article makes many points relevant to the foreclosure crisis’s latest numbers:
- We all messed up: While it’s easy to blame fat cats on Wall Street for the current financial woes plaguing our country, a more honest assessment finds that most people involved in buying and selling houses during the boom acted a little bit irresponsibly.
- We need better choices: One of the aims of the new CFPB, then, is to regulate and oversee various financial products and services and their providers to help make sure we have fewer chances of messing up so badly in the future.
- We can expect improvement: The article notes that, ideally, the CFPB would work not to restrict banks’ ability to make money, but to encourage them (and other financial institutions) to compete in ways that benefit consumers, rather than compete to trick consumers into getting expensive, dangerous products.
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