More U.S. homeowners fell behind on mortgage payments last month, driving the number of homes facing foreclosure up 65 percent versus the same month last year and contributing to a deepening slide in home values, a research company said Tuesday.
Nationwide, 243,353 homes received at least one foreclosure-related filing in April, up 65 percent from 147,708 in the same month last year and up 4 percent since March, RealtyTrac Inc. said.
Nevada, Arizona, California and Florida were among the hardest hit states, with metropolitan areas in California and Florida accounting for nine of the top 10 areas with the highest rate of foreclosure, the company said.
Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac monitors default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions.
We were late – it was taxes or house payment.
I’d much rather deal with the grace of my neighborhood banker than the ire of the IRS.
We have now almost caught up again.
Don
Don, good to hear that you hung in there and starting to catch up.
Few homeowners have mortgage obligations to a local banker anymore. Most residence property purchase mortgages and home equity credit line mortgages are being paid to faceless mortgage finance servicing companies that simply track payments made to loan account numbers, and it is those companies that ring the bell to start foreclosure proceedings when too much time passes without sufficient money coming there way. Delinquent property taxes, on the other hand, do not mean a homeowner has lost even when a property has been auctioned at a municipality’s tax sale – because generally property owners have a lengthy redemption period following the tax sale during which to stay in their home and use imagination, thrift, and humility to come up with all that they have in arrears. Similarly, neither the IRS or state governments are interested in executing tax sales just because they slap tax liens on people’s real estate; the higher levels of government simply insist on getting their money whenever it becomes available on account of property sales. Foreclosures neither wait, nor include any “one last chance” time period. Lesson: Pay mortgages before taxes.