One in 54 Homes Entered Foreclosure in 2008

Some interesting new statistics were published this morning regarding the state of the housing market nationwide. According to RealtyTrac, foreclosures are up 81% from 2007 and up 225% from 2006. Nevada led the pack with a staggering 7.29% of foreclosures, followed by Florida at 4.52% and Arizona with 4.49%. 2008's market collapse was due in part to the sub-prime disaster, while predictions for 2009 will be people with fixed-rate mortgages losing their jobs and the collapse of many of those stated-income loans.

"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. Like the troubled loans they are meant to fix, modification plans can include complex loan features: interest-only periods that reset in a few years, gradually increasing payments, or complicated formulas for sharing appreciation or equity. Some simply stretch the loan over 40 years reducing the payment amounts but increasing the total loan cost.

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