The number of homeowners receiving foreclosure notices fell in November, the fourth consecutive monthly decline, as mortgage firms evaluated whether borrowers were qualified for assistance.
One in every 417 homes or 307,000 households on the verge of foreclosure were down to 8 percent from a month earlier, said CEO and Chairman of Captrust International, Richard Gordon. Banks repossessed around 77,000 homes in November, a slight improvement from October.
Millions of borrowers are still to be evaluated under the foreclosure prevention efforts of the Obama administration.
However, the foreclosure crisis will probably worsen than improve.
Gordon further said, “We don’t really believe the underlying problems have been resolved.” He added that a lot of borrowers "simply aren’t going to qualify" for assistance.
Foreclosure filings were still up 18 percent in 2008, and a new wave is anticipated by 2010 as borrowers fall out of loan modification programmes and unemployment remains high.
Nevada posted the highest foreclosure rate around the nation, followed by Florida, California, Arizona and Idaho. To complete the top 10 were Michigan, Illinois, Utah, Maryland and New Jersey.
Merced, California had the highest rate among the cities, with one in 83 homes receiving foreclosure-related notice. Next to it were the cities of Stockton and Modesto, and Cape-Coral-Fort Myers, Fla.
Las Vegas, which had been on top of the list for four-straight months, fell to the No. 5 spot.
On a national scale, a report showed that there were only around 10,000 homeowners who received permanent loan modifications under the mortgage relief plan of the Obama administration. This indicates more serious failures in the efforts of the government.
Elizabeth Warren, the chair of a watchdog panel told reporters that the programme is “not working” and that it did not create a dent in the record level of foreclosures. Over 14 percent of homeowners with mortgages have delayed payment obligations or are in foreclosure. That figure is still expected to keep rising as unemployment stays persistently high.