Foreclosures up 30 percent in February
Despite halts on new foreclosures by several major lenders, the number of households threatened with losing their homes rose 30 percent in February from last year's levels.
Nationwide, nearly 291,000 homes received at least one foreclosure-related notice last month, up 6 percent from January.
While foreclosures are highly concentrated in the Western states and Florida, the problem is spreading to states like Idaho, Illinois and Oregon as the U.S. economy worsens.
At least for the foreseeable future, it's going to be pretty ugly.
Two states that contributing to the increase were Florida and New York, where temporary bans on foreclosures ended.
But other states are moving to enact similar measures. On Wednesday the Michigan House approved legislation that would give homeowners facing foreclosure a 90-day reprieve. The legislation now goes to Michigan's Republican-led Senate, where its future is unclear.
While the number of foreclosures continue to soar nationwide, banks have held off listing properties for sale, Sharga said. There were around 700,000 such properties nationwide at the end of last year, making up a "shadow inventory" of unsold homes that could drag the housing crisis out even longer.
It's going to take us longer than you might anticipate to burn through the inventory of distressed properties.
The faltering economy, driven down by the collapse of the housing bubble, is causing the housing crisis to spread. Nearly 12 percent of all Americans with a mortgage — a record 5.4 million homeowners — were at least one month late or in foreclosure at the end of last year, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. That's up from 10 percent at the end of the third quarter, and up from 8 percent at the end of 2007.
More than 74,000 properties were repossessed by lenders in February as the worst recession in decades, falling home values and stricter lending standards continue to sap the U.S. real estate market.
Nevada, Arizona, California and Florida had the nation's top foreclosure rates. In Nevada, one in every 70 homes received a foreclosure filing, while the number was one every 147 in Arizona. Rounding out the top 10 were Idaho, Michigan, Illinois, Georgia, Oregon and Ohio.
Among metro areas, Las Vegas was first, with one in every 60 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing. It was followed by the Cape Coral-Fort Myers area in Florida and five California metropolitan areas: Stockton, Modesto, Merced, Riverside-San Bernardino and Bakersfield.
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Martha, Can you say TARP?
Lawmakers voiced frustration with what they said was a continued lack of clarity from the Treasury on how banks were spending money they have received under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
Subcommittee chairman Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, complained that at least three financial institutions that have received TARP money — Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp., and JP Morgan Chase and Co. — have made billions of dollars in foreign investments.
"If the banking system is in serious enough trouble to require massive amounts of federal support, shouldn't that federal support be channeled to the domestic economy?" Kucinich asked.
Within weeks, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner plans to unveil a new public-private investment fund that will be used to purchase illiquid assets, such as toxic mortgage related securities at the heart of the financial crisis. Kashkari said the private sector has voiced interest in the program and said he expects pension funds and mutual funds that hold retirement savings to be among the major investors.
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“Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself”: FDR’s First Inaugural Address
Martha, how people "feel" about the potential for recovery affects how fast we actually do recover.
Americans Still See Economic Recovery As A Long-Term Process
Sixty-four percent (64%) of Americans say the economy will be stronger in five years than it is today, while just 17% think it will be weaker by then. Only 42% say the economy will be stronger in a year's time, and nearly as many (37%) expect it to be weaker.
Just 12% believe the stock market will recover within a year. Twenty-one percent (21%) say it will take two years, and 13% believe three years are needed. The plurality of adults (37%) predict it will take more than three years for the market to come back.
Thirty-eight percent (38%) also believe it will take more than three years for housing prices to recover. Some are more optimistic: Eight percent (8%) believe housing prices will come back within a year, 18% say two years, and 19% three years.
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America lost 2.5 million millionaires in 2008
The financial crisis has weighed heavily on American households, and millionaires are no exception, according to a report released Wednesday.The number of American households with a net worth of $1 million or more, excluding the value of their primary residence, fell 27% to 6.7 million in 2008 from an all-time high of 9.2 million the year before.
Affluent households, defined as those with a net worth of $500,000 or more, declined 28% to 11.3 million from 15.7 million.
Even the very rich have not been immune. Households worth $5 million or more, excluding primary residence, fell 28% to 840,000 last year from 1.16 million households in 2007.
The culprit is not just the stock market, which we all know has dropped precipitously, but broad declines in the asset classes available to the nation's wealthiest investors.
The average value of investments in their principal residence, mutual funds, managed accounts and IRAs all fell in 2008 versus 2007.
Millionaire households estimated that the financial crisis dented their net worth by between 30% and 40%.
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Lost a few Billionaires as well.
Today there are 793 people on our list of the World's Billionaires, a 30% decline from a year ago.
Of the 1,125 billionaires who made last year's ranking, 373 fell off the list--355 from declining fortunes and 18 who died. There are 38 newcomers, plus three moguls who returned to the list after regaining their 10-figure fortunes. It is the first time since 2003 that the world has had a net loss in the number of billionaires.
The world's richest are also a lot poorer. Their collective net worth is $2.4 trillion, down $2 trillion from a year ago. Their average net worth fell 23% to $3 billion.
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