Foreclosure filings — the records filed when a house enters or reaches a new stage of foreclosure — logged a huge jump in August, outpacing July’s filings by 79.5 percent and last August’s filings by 247 percent, RealtyTrac reported this morning.
The regional foreclosure spike echoed the trend nationwide, where foreclosure filings jumped by 36 percent from July and 115 percent from August 2006.
From a RealtyTrac release:
“The jump in foreclosure filings this month might be the beginning of the next wave of increased foreclosure activity, as a large number of subprime adjustable rate loans are beginning to reset now,” commented James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “Another significant factor in the increased level of foreclosure activity is that the number of REO filings (bank repossessions) is increasing dramatically, which means that a greater percentage of homes entering foreclosure are going back to the banks.”
The nation averaged one foreclosure filing for every 510 homes in August. San Diego County more than doubled that rate, reaching one foreclosure filing for every 230 homes in the county, RealtyTrac reported. California’s rate jumped to second-highest among states, falling behind Nevada. San Diego was ranked 14th among metropolitan areas in the nation for foreclosure activity.
The news came in advance of the Federal Reserve Board’s meeting today, in which the central bank is widely expected to cut interest rates, something it hasn’t done for more than four years.
I have to share this, from the MarketWatch preview of the Fed decision:
When Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke sits down to write his book, the odds are that there will be a chapter on the meeting he and his fellow central bankers will have Tuesday.
Financial markets are counting on Bernanke to use his creativity and guile to chart a course for the central bank that will reassure markets pleading for a rate cut without spooking investors that a recession is at hand.