80% of foreclosures are in 5 states????

[KCfromNC]

If you believe this article, it's more like 60% and IL is listed instead of MI as #5 in the top 5.

Foreclosure filings jump 24% in first quarter over last year - Apr. 16, 2009, scroll down to

Five states accounted for nearly 60% of the total foreclosure activity in the first quarter: In California, Florida, Arizona, Nevada and Illinois, 479,516 properties received foreclosure filings.

The article also says there were about 800,000 foreclosure filings in the first quarter, so yeah, the remaining 40% is still quite a lot.

Also, the latest data from March shows nearly a 50% increase from March 2008, so this isn't just increased awareness, it's a big jump in actual foreclosures from normal.

[In the Pines]

Kc - thanks for posting the link to the article.

My bank told me they were swamped in refinance applications right now. To me, that sounded positive - maybe future foreclosures will go down???

[KCfromNC]

I'm not sure the people who are refinancing are the ones who are at risk of foreclosure. People who have equity in the house can just sell to get out from under it. People who don't have equity in the house are the ones stuck trying short sales or eventually foreclosures. You can't refinance without having some sort of equity in the house, so people underwater in their house can't take advantage of the lower rates to cut their payments.

[centraltex_sara]

Here's the source data for the article:
FORECLOSURE ACTIVITY INCREASES 9 PERCENT IN FIRST QUARTER

[In the Pines]

Originally Posted by KCfromNC

I'm not sure the people who are refinancing are the ones who are at risk of foreclosure. People who have equity in the house can just sell to get out from under it. People who don't have equity in the house are the ones stuck trying short sales or eventually foreclosures. You can't refinance without having some sort of equity in the house, so people underwater in their house can't take advantage of the lower rates to cut their payments.

Not sure I totally agree. I had an friend with equity in her home (even had a HELOC) but her payments were out of line with her career instability. If she had refinanced when she first realized her payments were no longer appropriate with her altered job position, she could have saved her house. Instead, she let it all go and went through a very early mid-life crisis (I'm talking whole 9 yards) and sadly became a foreclosure statistic.