US foreclosures on homeowners ramped up to a record pace last month for the second consecutive month, underscoring the deepening crisis in the housing market, private data showed yesterday.
Foreclosure filings, which includes home-loan default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions, were reported on 342,038 US homes last month, said RealtyTrac, an online firm specializing in foreclosure properties.
The record-high rate highlighted the problems homeowners are facing amid surging unemployment and tight credit as the world’s largest economy struggles in its second year of recession.
The rise was less than 1 percent from March, but a 32 percent increase from April last year.
Yet the numbers showed a deceleration from March, when foreclosure activity jumped 17 percent from February and was up 46 percent from a year ago.
One in every 374 US housing units received a foreclosure filing last month, RealtyTrac said, the highest monthly foreclosure rate since the firm began issuing its report in January 2005.
“Much of this activity is at the initial stages of foreclosure — the default and auction stages — while bank repossessions … were down on a monthly and annual basis to their lowest level since March 2008,” RealtyTrac chief executive James Saccacio said.
“This suggests that many lenders and servicers are beginning foreclosure proceedings on delinquent loans that had been delayed by legislative and industry moratoria,” he said, referring to government and private sector efforts to help at-risk homeowners keep their homes.
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