Annual Home Repossession Numbers Double

And Whopping 81 Percent More Americans Faced Foreclosure Proceedings; 2.3 Million In 2008

(CBS/AP)  More than 2.3 million American homeowners faced foreclosure proceedings last year, an 81 percent increase from 2007, with the worst yet to come as consumers grapple with layoffs, shrinking investment portfolios and falling home prices.

Nationwide, more than 860,000 properties were actually repossessed by lenders, more than double the 2007 level, according to RealtyTrac, a foreclosure listing firm based in Irvine, California, which compiled the figures.

Moody's Economy.com, a research firm, predicts the number of homes lost to foreclosure is likely to rise by another 18 percent this year before tapering off slightly through 2011.

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the Senate would vote Thursday on a request by President-elect Barack Obama to release the remaining $350 billion of the financial bailout fund to expand lending to consumers, small businesses and municipalities and to reduce the rising rate of foreclosures.

Obama's economic team lobbied for votes Wednesday night. His advisers offered assurances that the money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program would be spent differently than it was under President Bush.

Lawmakers who met privately with Obama emissaries on Wednesday said after the discussions that Obama would spend the remaining $350 billion of the financial bailout fund on expanded lending and reducing foreclosures, and would not use the money to help other industries.

Foreclosures - which keep breaking records going back 30 years, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association - are likely to remain well above normal levels for years to come, and that will continue to keep home prices from rebounding.

"Hitting bottom is a lot different than coming off the bottom," said Christopher Thornberg, a principal with Beacon Economics in Los Angeles.

Commenting Wednesday in his column, "Other People's Money," CNET Political Editor Declan McCullagh argued that politicians should resist populist pressure to bailout Americans who took out mortgages on homes they could not afford. "This is not politically correct to say, but the reality is that not everyone can afford a house," said McCullagh.

The four states with the highest foreclosure rates last year were Nevada, Florida, Arizona and California.

More than 1.1 million properties in those four states received a foreclosure notice, almost half the national total. And more than one in five of those households were in California, which is coping with massive job losses in the housing and mortgage industries as well as a rapid decline in home prices.

In December, more than 303,000 properties nationwide received at least one foreclosure notice, up more than 40 percent from a year earlier and up 17 percent from November, according to RealtyTrac.

Nearly 79,000 properties were repossessed by lenders in December, a 61 percent increase over a year ago.

The root source of this country''s problems that led to this financial catastrophe is that more of its citizens than ever are suffering from uncontrollable desires to covet, envy, lust, and be gluttons. From these desires we tend to steel, lie, and ignore risk to get what we desire. To blame our uncontrollable desire to en debt ourselves and live beyond our means on Political parties and individuals in congress is foolish. We as Americans have to change and be examples for the next generation and live by the values that made this country what it once was. Those values can only be found in the Bible. It chronicles the decline of many societies that crumbled for the same reasons that we are crumbling and causes us to look within ourselves for change.

[wardoglrs]

The Democracy will cease to exist when you take from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not "TJ"

The Natural progress of things for liberty to yield and government to gain ground "TJ"

"Reform cannot be achieved by a well-intentioned leader who recruits his followers from the very people whose moral confusion is the cause of the disorder." - Socrates


A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine. - Thomas Jefferson

The problems we face today cannot be solved by the minds that created them Albert Einstein

Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves. David Henry Thoreau

As the economist Dr. Stuart Crane was fond of saying, Things in the monetary world don%u2019t just happen to happen. They happen because they were planned to happen.

It is surely time for men to think for themselves, and to throw off the authority of names so artificially magnified.
Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Short, August 4, 1820 see Positive Atheism''s Historical

[pforeclosure]

For those folks who keep on displacing their anger on the people who are losing their homes, besides my argument for compassion, I urge everyone to think about how your neighbors foreclosure is affecting the economy at large. Whether next door or further away, the foreclosures en masse are and will continue to act as a heavy weight on the economy and maybe more importantly, on the collective psyche of the nation which in large part drives our economy, our expectations, and ultimately our actions.

It is in all of our interests to help people get out of this foreclosure booby trap. There are many online resources where one can begin their research, a good place to start is this non-profit resource center: http://preventingforeclosure.org

We call ourselves adults and all that this word invokes, but ironically not even children would treat each other the way we do sometimes.

[pforeclosure]

For those folks who keep on displacing their anger on the people who are losing their homes, besides my argument for compassion, I urge everyone to think about how your neighbors foreclosure is affecting the economy at large. Whether next door or further away, the foreclosures en masse are and will continue to act as a heavy weight on the economy and maybe more importantly, on the collective psyche of the nation which in large part drives our economy, our expectations, and ultimately our actions.

It is in all of our interests to help people get out of this foreclosure booby trap. There are many online resources where one can begin their research, a good place to start is this non-profit resource center: http://preventingforeclosure.org

We call ourselves adults and all that this word invokes, but ironically not even children would treat each other the way we do sometimes.

[tincup356]

Shouldn''''t have bought homes you couldn''''t afford...and if you lost your job, you should''''ve made provisions for covering those house payments...

Sorry not my job to bail you out!!!!

Posted by TexHillGirl at 06:22 PM : Jan 15, 2009..........so its all right to give billions to the banks that made the bad loans in the first place?...so they can use that money for BS and greed?....I hope you dont have some financial disaster hit you,,,,,that would be way humbling to you to lose everything after bad mouthing those who already have,,,,,,,That would be a shame.

[tincup356]

Some of you people have real gall to laugh at people losing their homes...and you all automatically think they couldnt afford them in the first place......in some cases that might be true....the real fact of the matter is the economy has been bad for the lower and middle classes for a while now ...say since 911 when the price of everything started going up and up and up...and before long people were paying three times the normal cost of living,,,,,lay on top of that jobs being lost.....so don''t be so quick to put the blame solely on the homeowners....you don''t know when what you have might just get taken by any of the greed driven pitfalls that have hit others, and find yourself looking for an overpass to sleep under.

[wardoglrs]

"Reform cannot be achieved by a well-intentioned leader who recruits his followers from the very people whose moral confusion is the cause of the disorder." - Socrates

A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine. - Thomas Jefferson

As the economist Dr. Stuart Crane was fond of saying, Things in the monetary world don%u2019t just happen to happen. They happen because they were planned to happen.

For the want of a nail,the shoe was lost,for the want of a shoe the horse was lost,for the want of a horse the rider lost,being overtaken and slain by the enemy, all for the want of care about a horseshoe nail.
Benjamin Franklin

[b4ucmyi]

Homes aren''t repossessed, they are foreclosed. Repossessed is what you get when you don''t pay the exorcist.

[cariboubarbi]

Thanks Bushies!

[ontheleft]

Here''s a good analogy to what''s going on. The economy just jumped out of an airplane and is in free fall. Pretty soon a parachute will open in the form of a trillion dollar spending bill, thus slowing the fall. However, the parachute has a design flaw - it only works for a little while. Once the parachute fails, the economy will go back into free fall until it hits the ground. Splat.

[raskal_2]

Yeah well, With the housing market as it is, I will be opening up Grandma''s mattress soon. Because the reality is ''you only make real money when there is blood in the streets''

[antoniof123]

Sounds strange, but honest to God, it is true.
Posted by assemblyofso at 02:59 PM : Jan 15, 2009

Where do you nut cases come up with such nonsense. Please take it to right wing news dot com that way we here who want to read real responses don''t have to listen to your dirbble and lies.

[win4usa]

The worst has yet to come. Start saving now. Depression 2009

[brianbwb-2009]

Knock, knock

Who''s there

Ize

Ize who?

Ize yo'' next door neighbor!

[brianbwb-2009]

"Sounds strange, but honest to God, it is true."
Posted by assemblyofso

Why, if you object to Mr. Obama so virulently as many of your posts indicate, did you not report this to the elections commission? It is the same procedure for lodging a complaint if your vote was denied, you could have called the number on the required posted literature, and they would have sent someone immediately to check it out.

Also I find it difficult to believe that voting age citizens, even the most uneducated among us, would believe that for even a split second.

At any rate, get ready,

"Gop is zero-zero, party over oops out of time

The world is gonna party like its two thousand and nine" (sung to the tune of "1999" by Prince)

[brianbwb-2009]

Here is a thought, the lenders foreclose and repossess the property, then we foreclose on their $350 billion debt, and reposses their assets,

Bingo!

Public housing for the low income! It would be saweeet to see some low income South Central LA "Black" people living in Beverly Hills, Brentwood, and Bel Air...

[assemblyofso]

No Brian I did not vote for him. This is what a couple of ladies in line at the polls said to me as we waited to vote.

They were newly registered and said me they had been promised they would no longer have to make house or car payments if they were on record as voting for Obama.

They said that the person who helped them register told them "If you will vote for him, he will do this for you." They were under the impression there would be some type of report that would show him those who had voted for him so they could get the goodies.

Sounds strange, but honest to God, it is true.

[solarrays247-2009]

If we take the position that no one be bailed out, then I say we give the banks and other financial institutions ARM terms, and if they miss three payments, we foreclose on their properties, and add the assets to the national treasury.

They would do the same to us.

Posted by brianbwb


I have previously advocated something similar. If these banks hold a credit card balance for me, and determine I am in financial trouble, they will raise my APR to 26.9% (even though I haven''''t missed a payment) while muttering something about increased risk. If this practice is good enough treatment for us, it is good enough treatment for our banker buddies.

Posted by omega40 at 02:47 PM : Jan 15, 2009


This makes good sense, and appears to be fair...with justice and equality for all! ;)

[brianbwb-2009]

"If you did not register and vote for him you are screwed." Posted by assemblyofso

Odd, I never heard this, from whom did you get this information?

Someone else who voted for the rejected one perhaps?

Well then you should have voted Obama. It must suck to be you.

[brianbwb-2009]

Posted by omega40

26.9% is a good number on a $350 billion mortgage, we already know they are a high risk borrower.