U.S. home foreclosures actions spiked in March and set a quarterly record despite federal programs to combat the unrelenting pace that homeowners are defaulting on mortgages, RealtyTrac said on Thursday.Part of this is Congress's fault. They defeated cramdown legislation twice, which would have made a difference in the foreclosure rate...a big difference. Now we're seeing the results: foreclosures continue to rise after setting a record in 2009, and are headed towards an even larger record based on Q1 2010 numbers. But a big double-digit jump in foreclosure numbers from this time last year is, for once, economic bad news that I will lay at the feet of this President and the Democrats in Congress and not Bush.
The government aid, intensified in late March, has so far failed to overcome the staggering effects of nearly double-digit unemployment and wage cuts on borrowers.
Foreclosure activity jumped 19 percent to a monthly record in March, driving first-quarter actions up 7 percent from the prior quarter and 16 percent from a year ago to a record of more than 932,000 properties.
One in every 138 U.S. households got a foreclosure filing in the quarter such as a notice of default, auction or bank repossession.
Banks took back more than 257,000 properties in the quarter, a record high, putting repossessions on pace to shatter last year's record of more than 918,000 properties.
"If there's going to be a modification program that really has a material effect this year, it's not there yet," Rick Sharga, senior vice president at RealtyTrac, told Reuters.
At this point we're going to be dealing with foreclosures and the housing collapse well into 2013 and possibly longer unless Obama and the Dems get to work on serious foreclosure relief. This is one area where Obama and the Democrats have dropped the ball, and the economy cannot recover until this is fixed.
What more impetus do you need, guys?
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