This excerpt is from the WSWS:
Home foreclosures in the US increased 19 percent in October over a year ago, according to a report released by RealtyTrac, Inc., on Thursday. The number of filings was more than 300,000 for the eighth month in a row.
The figures reflect the continued crisis facing millions of US homeowners who face declining wages and soaring unemployment.
The state with the highest foreclosure rate in the country continues to be Nevada, where one out of 80 homes received a foreclosure filing in October.
The state with the highest absolute number of foreclosures was California, with more than 85,000, followed by Florida, Illinois, and Michigan. These four states accounted for more than 50 percent of all foreclosures in the country.
RealtyTrac reported that the number of foreclosures declined slightly from September, down 3 percent. This was the third straight month-on-month decline. James Saccacio, CEO of RealtyTrac, noted, “However, the fundamental forces driving foreclosure activity in this housing downturn―high-risk mortgages, negative equity, and unemployment―continue to loom over any nascent recovery.”
A separate report released Tuesday from the National Association of Realtors found that the median sale price for a single-family home fell 11.2 percent from a year ago. This includes a price decline in 80 percent of the country’s metropolitan areas.
via www.wsws.org
Combine with the following from today's NYT (Gretchen Morgenson):
ON Nov. 6, President Obama signed the Worker, Homeownership and Business Assistance Act of 2009 into law, extending unemployment benefits by 20 weeks and renewing the first-time homebuyer tax credit until next April.
But tucked inside the law was another prize: a tax break that lets big companies offset losses incurred in 2008 and 2009 against profits booked as far back as 2004. The tax cuts will generate corporate refunds or relief worth about $33 billion, according to an administration estimate.
Before the bill became law, the so-called look-back on losses was limited to small businesses and could be used to counterbalance just two years of profits. Now the profit offset goes back five years, and the law allows big companies to take advantage of it, too. The only companies that can’t participate are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and any institution that took money under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
Among the biggest beneficiaries are home builders, analysts say. Once again, at the front of the government assistance line, stand some of the very companies that contributed mightily to the credit crisis by building and financing too many homes.
This is getting to be a habit: companies that participated on the upside and are now reaping rewards from the taxpayers on the downside. The banks that underwrote so many dubious loans, for example, received government aid to get them lending again. Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the result.
Foreclosures are hitting record numbers. This situation make people lose their hope in better times
Posted by: Tony | November 16, 2009 at 01:10 PM
The two things are connected... As tony said up here, if the foreclosures are strong, the sentiment goes down
Posted by: Kevin Simpson | November 18, 2009 at 01:06 PM