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More Than 2.2 Million Foreclosure Filings on Nearly 1.3 Million Properties Reported In USA During 2007.

RealtyTrac® (realtytrac.com), the leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties, today released year-end data from its 2007 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, which shows a total of 2,203,295 foreclosure filings — default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions — were reported on 1,285,873 properties nationwide during the year, up 75 percent from 2006. The report also shows that more than 1 percent of all U.S. households were in some stage of foreclosure during the year, up from 0.58 percent in 2006.

A total of 215,749 foreclosure filings were reported in December, up 97 percent from December 2006 and bringing the fourth-quarter total to 642,150 filings on 527,740 properties — up 1 percent from the previous quarter and up 86 percent from the fourth quarter of 2006.

“The year ended with a monthly increase of 7 percent in December, making it the fifth straight month with more than 200,000 foreclosure filings reported and giving the fourth quarter the highest quarterly total we’ve seen since we began issuing our report in January 2005,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “It also pushed the foreclosure filing total for 2007 well over 2 million. And while filings were up 75 percent, the number of properties in some stage of foreclosure was up 79 percent, indicating that some properties may have just entered the initial stage of foreclosure in 2007 and could be going through the rest of the foreclosure process in 2008 — unless lender and government intervention efforts begin to gain more traction.”

Top annual foreclosure rates
Nevada posted the nation’s highest state foreclosure rate for 2007, with 3.4 percent of its households entering some stage of foreclosure during the year — more than three times the national average. The state documented the highest monthly foreclosure rate in all 12 months of the year. A total of 66,316 foreclosure filings on 34,417 properties were reported in Nevada in 2007, an increase of more than 200 percent in total filings from 2006.

With more than 2 percent of its households entering some stage of foreclosure during the year, Florida documented the second highest state foreclosure rate for 2007. A total of 279,325 foreclosure filings on 165,291 properties were reported in the state during the year, more than twice the number of filings reported in 2006. The state’s foreclosure filing total in December was up 275 percent from December 2006, and its fourth quarter total was up 211 percent from the fourth quarter of 2006.

Michigan documented the nation’s third highest state foreclosure for 2007, with 1.9 percent of its households entering some stage of foreclosure during the year. A total of 136,205 foreclosure filings on 87,210 properties were reported in the state during the year, a 68 percent increase in total filings from 2006. Michigan foreclosure activity dipped 17 percent from the third quarter to the fourth quarter, but its December foreclosure filing total was still up more than 70 percent from December 2006.

California, Colorado, Ohio, Georgia, Arizona, Illinois and Indiana all posted foreclosure rates among the nation’s top 10 in 2007, and all these states documented more than 1 percent of their households entering some stage of foreclosure during the year.

Highest foreclosure filing totals
With a total of 481,392 foreclosure filings on 249,513 properties during the year, California documented the highest number of foreclosure filings and the most properties in some stage of foreclosure in 2007. The state’s total foreclosure filings more than tripled from 2006, and the state’s 2007 foreclosure rate — 1.9 percent of its households entering some stage of foreclosure during the year — ranked fourth highest among the states. California foreclosure filings were down 3 percent from the third quarter to the fourth quarter despite a 33 percent spike in December, but total foreclosure filings in the fourth quarter were still nearly three times the number reported in the fourth quarter of 2006.

Florida tallied the second highest totals, both in terms of foreclosure filings and properties entering some stage of foreclosure in 2007. (See above for more details on Florida.)

Ohio’s total foreclosure filings, 153,196, and total properties entering some stage of foreclosure, 89,979, both ranked third highest among the states for 2007. The state’s foreclosure filings increased 88 percent from 2006, and its 2007 foreclosure rate was the nation’s sixth highest, with 1.8 percent of the state’s households entering some stage of foreclosure during the year. Ohio’s high ranking for the year came despite a dip in foreclosure activity in the fourth quarter, when foreclosure filings decreased 2 percent from the previous quarter. The state’s December foreclosure filings were down 26 percent from the previous month but still up 64 percent from December 2006.

Other states with foreclosure filing totals among the top 10 were Texas, Michigan, Georgia, Illinois, Colorado, Arizona and Nevada.

Report methodology
The RealtyTrac 2007 Year-End U.S. Foreclosure Market Report provides the total number of foreclosure filings nationwide and by state, along with the total number of unique addresses entering some stage of foreclosure and percentage of total households entering some stage of foreclosure (foreclosure rate). Data is also available at the individual county level.

The household numbers are based on the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2005 estimates of total housing units. Foreclosure filings include foreclosure-related documents in all three phases of foreclosure: Default — Notice of Default (NOD) and Lis Pendens (LIS); Auction — Notice of Trustee Sale and Notice of Foreclosure Sale (NTS and NFS); and Real Estate Owned, or REO properties (that have been foreclosed on and repurchased by a bank).

Ranked as the third largest real estate site by MediaMetrix and No. 53 on Inc. magazine’s 2006 Inc. 500 list of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies, RealtyTrac Inc., is the leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties, providing all the resources that home seekers, investors and real estate agents need to locate, evaluate and buy properties below market value. - Source: RealtyTrac Inc.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve, confronted with a global stock sell-off fanned by increased fears of a recession, cut a key interest rate by three-quarters of a percentage point on Tuesday, the biggest one-day move by the central bank in recent memory.

The Fed said it was cutting the federal funds rate, the interest that banks charge each other on overnight loans, to 3.5 percent, down by three-fourths of a percentage point from 4.25 percent.

The Fed action was the most dramatic signal it can send that it is concerned about a potential recession in the United States. It marked the biggest one-day move by the central bank in recent memory.

The Fed decision was taken during an emergency telephone conference with Fed officials on Monday night. Those discussions occurred after global financial markets had plunged Monday as investors grew more concerned about the possibility that the United States, the world’s largest economy, could be headed into a recession.

In a brief statement, the Fed said it had decided to cut the federal funds rate “in view of a weakening of the economic outlook and increasing downside risks to growth.”

The central bank said that the strains in short-term funding markets have eased a bit, but “broader financial market conditions have continued to deteriorate and credit has tightened further for some businesses and households. Moreover, incoming information indicates a deepening of the housing contraction as well as some softening in labor markets.”

The move caught financial markets by surprise. Many had expected the central bank would wait until its meeting next week to make any move in interest rates. The Fed made the move before markets had opened in the United States, hoping that the bold move would limit the decline in U.S. stocks.

Before Tuesday’s move, the Fed had cut interest rates three times, beginning in September, the month after a severe credit crunch had roiled Wall Street and global financial markets. The Fed cut the funds rate by a half-point in September and then by smaller quarter-point moves in October and December.

In its statement, the Fed said, that “appreciable downside risks to growth remain” and held out the prospect of further rate cuts.

“The committee will continue to assess the effects of financial and other developments on economic prospects and will act in a timely manner as needed to address those risk,” the Fed statement said.

The Fed’s action was approved on an 8-1 vote with William Poole, president the Fed’s regional bank, dissenting. The statement said that Poole objected because he did not believe current conditions justified a rate move before the Fed’s meeting next week.

That’s the latest on the Federal Interest Rate Cut

The Federal Reserve made a surprise 0.750% rate cut this morning.

Mortgage rates are falling in response, but not because of what the Fed did as much as what the Fed implied by doing it.

The chart above dated from last week and illustrates what traders thought the Fed would do to the Fed Funds Rate at its 2-day meeting January 29-30.

Note that over a two-month span, the market expectation changed.  The blue line (4.250%) represents the Fed Funds Rate prior to this morning.

Two months ago, markets overwhelmingly expected a 0.250% rate cut this January (as represented by the white line).  As of last Friday, they split between 0.500% and 0.750%.

When the economy is weak, this sort of shift tends to happen.  It’s the same expectation of weakness that drives mortgage rates down over time, too.

This is why both the Fed Funds Rate and mortgage rates tend to fall during times of economic weakness.

So, after the Federal Reserve’s surprise move this morning, we can infer that the Fed sees dramatic weakness in the economy — enough that a half-point cut to 3.750% may have just been too little.

And this is why mortgage rates are falling this morning.  Prior to today, only half of the market had expected such weakness that a three-quarter point adjustment would have been required.

This morning, mortgage markets are resetting their bets about the economy by purchasing more mortgage bonds.  The added demand is causing rates to fall, but not anywhere near the three-quarter percent levels by which the Fed cut the Fed Funds Rate.

Mortgage rates are down slightly.

That is Why Current Mortgage Rates Aren’t Falling.