Consumer Law

Alabama Foreclosures Up 156%

By M. Stan Herring

The Birmingham Business Journal has posted an article about the huge rise in Alabama foreclosures. Nearly one in every 107 households in 2009 was dealing with a phase of foreclosure. Foreclosures have risen 257% in Alabama since 2007.

Ourbroker.com has also posted an article that further elaborates on the massive rise in foreclosures nationally. 2009 saw a rise of 21% in foreclosures, which is 2,824,674 properties, because of the 7.2 million jobs that have been lost since 2007.

Going back to 2005, the annual totals from RealtyTrac look like this:

___ 2009 ? 3,957,643 foreclosure filings ? up 21 percent.

___ 2008 ? 3,157,806 foreclosure filings ? up 81 percent.

___ 2007 ? 2,203,295 foreclosure filings ? up 75 percent.

___ 2006 ? 1,259,118 foreclosure filings ? up 42 percent.

___ 2005 ? 885,468 foreclosure filings.

However, due to state legislation, loan modifications and other short term factors, foreclosures actually decreased for about a four month window. However, the crisis is too severe for the turnaround to have lasted.

?In the long term a massive supply of delinquent loans continues to loom over the housing market, and many of those delinquencies will end up in the foreclosure process in 2010 and beyond as lenders gradually work their way through the backlog.?

December 2009 saw 349,519 foreclosure filings, up 14% from November and up 15% from December 2008. Four states have seen the most dramatic rise in foreclosure rates:

___ Alabama (up 156.26%)

___ Hawaii (up 182.64%)

___ Idaho (up 101.61%)

___ Mississippi (up 135.59%)

___ West Virginia (up 115.91%)

This percentage for Alabama matches up with the data reported by the Birmingham Business Journal.

If you would like more information on foreclosures, please read our articles The Three Stages of Foreclosure in Alabama and Wrongful Foreclosures in Alabama.

If you have further questions feel free to contact us through our website or by calling 205-879-2447.
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Full post as published by Alabama Consumer Blog on January 30, 2010 (boomark / email).