LOS ANGELES (AP) — More U.S. homeowners fell behind on mortgage payments last month, driving the number of houses facing foreclosure up 65 percent compared with April last year and contributing to a deepening slide in home values, according to research company RealtyTrac Inc.
Nationwide, 243,353 homes received at least one foreclosure-related filing in April, up 65 percent from 147,708 in April last year and up 4 percent since March, RealtyTrac 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 number of foreclosures, 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.
Median home prices fell in two-thirds of the cities surveyed during the first three months of this year, while 46 states reported declining sales, a real estate trade group reported yesterday.
The National Association of Realtors said median prices for existing single-family homes dropped in 100 of 149 metropolitan areas in the January-March period, while 48 metropolitan areas saw prices increase and one reported no change.
The price declines in 67 percent of the areas surveyed was the largest percentage of areas reporting declining prices in the history of the Realtors’ survey, which goes back to 1979. Prices had fallen in 34 percent of the cities surveyed in the October-December survey.
Nationally, the median home price — the point at which half the homes sold for more and half for less — fell to $196,300 in the first quarter, down by 7.7 percent from the same period a year ago, when the median sales price was $212,600.
Efforts by government and the mortgage industry to stem the tide of foreclosures aren’t keeping up with the rising number of strapped homeowners.
The April data shows that nearly half of the properties received an initial notice of default, suggesting that many homes were new entrants to the foreclosure process.
The U.S. House passed a bill last week that would offer government insurance on $300 billion in new mortgages to refinance loans for an estimated half-million borrowers facing foreclosure, particularly those who now owe more than their houses are worth because of declining values.
House lawmakers also passed a bill that would send $15 billion to states to buy and fix foreclosed homes.
Still, should the homeowner aid package clear the Senate, it faces a potential hurdle in the White House, which has threatened to veto the plan deemed as too risky and amounting to a lender bailout.
Even if a legislative compromise is reached, it could come too late for homeowners with adjustable-rate mortgages scheduled to reset to higher rates this month and the next.
More than 1 million home foreclosures are forecast for 2008.
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