Foreclosure increase spirals  -- NAMN needed now more than ever! Foreclosures up 81% in 2008 One in 54 homes entered foreclosure in 2008. Rising unemployment and sliding home prices have some experts expecting 2009 to be even worse. By Melinda Fulmer of MSNBC Real Estate,  January 15, 2008 IRVINE, CA.  Foreclosure filings were reported on more than 2.3 million properties, or one in 54 homes,in 2008. That's an 81% increase from 2007 and a 225% increase from 2006, according to foreclosure data firm RealtyTrac. Nevada led the nation with the highest foreclosure rate of 7.29%, followed by Florida at 4.52% and Arizona at 4.49%. The U.S. foreclosure rate was 1.84% for the year. State moratoriums and stays from Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae had helped slow the pace of foreclosures for the fourth quarter of 2008, but by December that effect had worn off. The number of foreclosure filings last month jumped 17% from November and 41% compared with December 2007, according to RealtyTrac. And with prices continuing to slide in most markets, more Americans are now making a conscious decision to walk away from their homes. "Clearly the foreclosure programs implemented to date have not had any real success in slowing down this foreclosure tsunami," James J. Saccacio, RealtyTrac's chief executive, said in a statement. Rising unemployment and the spike in foreclosure activity in December have many economists predicting a much longer real-estate recession than they had originally expected. Rick Sharga, a senior vice president at RealtyTrac, also expects 2009 to be far worse than 2008. And this time, he says, the culprit isn't subprime loans, but people with fixed-rate mortgages losing their jobs and the collapse of many of those stated-income loans. ###

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