In a sign that things are slow going in the housing market, foreclosure notices jumped nearly 4 percent from June to July. Over 325,000 housing units received a foreclosure filing in the month of July. This elevated level demonstrates that the housing market is still far from any sort of reasonable recovery especially with numerous troubled mortgages floating out in bank balance sheets. Keep in mind this high elevated amount of foreclosure activity comes at a time when the government has stepped up programs to help people with paying their mortgages. Let us take a look at the last five years of foreclosure activity.

“(RealtyTrac) July marked the 17th consecutive month with a foreclosure activity total exceeding 300,000,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “Declines in new default notices, which were down on a year-over-year basis for the sixth straight month in July, have been offset by near-record levels of bank repossessions, which increased on a year-over-year basis for the eighth straight month.” Foreclosure Activity by Type A total of 97,123 U.S. properties received default notices (NOD, LIS) in July, a 1 percent increase from the previous month but a 28 percent decrease from July 2009. Default notices in July were down 32 percent from their peak of 142,064 in April 2009. Foreclosure auctions (NTS, NFS) were scheduled for the first time on a total of 135,248 U.S. properties in July, an increase of 2 percent from the previous month but a decrease of 2 percent from July 2009. Scheduled auctions in July were down 14 percent from their peak of 158,105 in March 2010. Lenders foreclosed on 92,858 U.S. properties in July, a 9 percent increase from the previous month and a 6 percent increase from July 2009. July’s bank repossession (REO) total was the second highest monthly total since RealtyTrac began tracking REO activity in April 2005 and was 1 percent below the monthly REO activity peak of 93,777 in May 2010.”

And the beat goes on in the housing market. The leading states once again rear their heads with California accounting for 21 percent of all the activity in July alone. These numbers are discouraging especially as we enter the slower fall and winter seasons.

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