U.S. foreclosure filings surpassed 300,000 for an eighth-straight month in October, as unemployment made it tougher for homeowners to pay their bills, RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday.

A total of 332,292 properties, including 16,468 in Michigan and 9,792 in Metro Detroit, received a default or auction notice or were seized by banks in October.

The numbers are up 19 percent for the nation and 45 percent for the state, which ranked fourth nationally, according to California-based RealtyTrac, which tracks foreclosure and housing trends.

While the national and state rates are both up substantially from a year ago, they’re down a bit from September to October. Nationwide, the percentage of Americans who lost their homes in October was down 3 percent from the previous month — its third consecutive monthly decline; the decline in foreclosures was 1.7 percent in Michigan and 1.3 percent in Metro Detroit.

Nationally, one in every 385 households received a filing, compared to one in every 275 in Michigan.

For the 34th consecutive month, Nevada clocked in the nation’s highest foreclosure rate, followed by California, Florida, Arizona, Idaho, Illinois and Michigan.

“The foreclosure problem is still with us and will keep prices down,” said Stephen Miller, chairman of the economics department at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.

“The real issue is we don’t know what inventory banks are holding that they have yet to put on the market,” he said.

Michigan’s housing market will continue to lag any national recovery by several quarters, said Dana Johnson, chief economist for Comerica Inc.

But he is among many economists who expect the state to see some signs of a rebound, which will translate into an improved housing market.

“Part of it depends on a national recovery and then some stabilization in the auto industry,” Johnson said.

The Treasury Department said Tuesday that more than 650,000 borrowers, or 20 percent of those eligible, had signed up for temporary trial mortgage relief plans lasting up to five months.

But since the beginning of September, only about 1,700 modifications had been made permanent.

Congress last week also extended and expanded a key federal tax credit for homebuyers that has been credited for boosting home sales recently.

Source: DTNews.com

Foreclosures