Hmm, wasn’t this housing bubble crap supposed to be slowing down? Guess not. The foreclosure numbers for last quarter are twice as bad as last year according to the new numbers from RealtyTrac (a firm that tracks foreclosure filings.) 1 in every 171 households nationwide was foreclosed on, received a default notice or was warned of a pending auction in the second quarter of 2008. Bloomberg says this is an increase of 14% from last quarter and an increase of 121% from this time last year.

What does this mean for you? Bank seizures, the final “worst case scenario” of the foreclosure process, depress the values of surrounding properties. One analyst quoted by Bloomberg estimates that 25 million homeowners have properties that are in danger of being worth less than they owe on them.

Bank seizures in the first half of the year increased by 154 percent to 370,179 from the same period in 2007, RealtyTrac said. Last year’s second-quarter data on bank repossessions was not available, according to RealtyTrac.

Forty-eight of 50 states and 95 of the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan areas had year-over-year increases in foreclosure filings in the second quarter, RealtyTrac said.

U.S. Foreclosures Double as House Prices Decline [Bloomberg]
(Photo: Getty)

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