2011 to be worst yet for U.S. foreclosures

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By Janna Herron, Associated Press 10:15 PM Thursday, January 13, 2011

NEW YORK — The bleakest year in the foreclosure crisis has only just begun.

Lenders are poised to take back more homes this year than any other since the U.S. housing meltdown began in 2006. About 5 million borrowers are at least two months behind on their mortgages and industry experts say more people will miss payments because of job losses and also loans that exceed the value of the homes they are living in.

“2011 is going to be the peak,” said Rick Sharga, a senior vice president at RealtyTrac Inc. The foreclosure tracker on Thursday predicted 1.2 million homes will be repossessed this year.

The blistering pace of foreclosures this year will top 2010, when a record 1 million homes were lost, RealtyTrac said.

One in 45 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing, a record 2.9 million of them. That’s up 1.67 percent from 2009.

Likewise, the crisis locally shows no signs of abating, said Beth Deutscher, executive director of the HomeOwnership Center of Greater Dayton, which provides counseling and other services to troubled homeowners.

In Montgomery County, new foreclosure cases filed last totaled around 5,000, “which is still very much a crisis range,” Deutscher said. “We really don’t have any indications that those numbers are going to go down anytime soon.”

taff

riter Tim Tressler

contributed to this report

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