Foreclosures up 65% in April

By Rick Moran

Housing foreclosures are up 65% compared to last year indicating that the housing slowdown and credit crunch show no signs of abating:

Nationwide, 243,353 homes received at least one foreclosure-related filing in April, up 65 percent from 147,708 in the same month last year and up 4 percent since March, RealtyTrac Inc. said.

Nevada, Arizona, California and Florida were among the hardest hit states, with metropolitan areas in California and Florida accounting for nine of the top 10 areas with the highest rate of foreclosure, the company said.

Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac monitors default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions.

One in every 519 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing in April. Foreclosure filings increased from a year earlier in all but eight states.

The combination of weak housing sales, falling home values, tighter mortgage lending criteria and a slowing U.S. economy has left financially strapped homeowners with fewer options to avoid foreclosure. Many can't find buyers or owe more than their home is worth and can't get refinanced into an affordable loan.

Measures passed by Congress will affect only a small percentage of these homeowners as the economy continues to flush out the bad loans and risky customers who took advantage of the housing boom to purchase houses they couldn't afford or make loans that never should have been made.

While the mortgage backed securities crisis on Wall Street seems to have passed, expect many more months of bad news in the housing market before things bottom out.