The USA foreclosure rate continues to climb

The number of U.S. homeowners swept up in the housing crisis rose further last month, with foreclosure filings up nearly 50% from a year earlier, Realty Trac, a foreclosure listing company said last Friday

Lehman Brothers economist Michelle Meyer said in a report recently that U.S. home sales are likely to hit bottom at the end of this summer, but said a recovery in sales is likely to be "feeble." Home prices, she wrote, are still expected to fall another 10% by the end of 2009. Once again, the US is becoming even more an attractive proposition to those spending Euros, or even pounds. California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona are still most attractive in terms of price.

Across the U.S., 261,255 homes received at least one foreclosure-related filing in May, up 48% from 176,137 a year earlier and up 7% from April. One in every 483 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing in May, the highest number since RealtyTrac started the report in 2005 and the second-straight monthly record. RealtyTrac monitors default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions.

Foreclosure filings increased in all but 10 states. Nevada, California, Arizona, Florida and Michigan had the highest statewide foreclosure rates.

Metropolitan areas in California and Florida accounted for nine of the top 10 areas with the highest rate of foreclosure. That list was led by Stockton, Calif. and the Cape Coral-Fort Myers area in Florida.

In Nevada, one in every 118 households received a foreclosure-related notice last month, more than four times the national rate. In California, one in every 183 households faced foreclosure.

The combination of weak housing sales, falling home values, tighter mortgage lending criteria and a slowing U.S. economy has left financially strapped homeowners with few options to avoid foreclosure. Many can't find buyers or owe more than their home is worth and can't get refinanced into an affordable loan.

Efforts by the government and mortgage industry to stem the tide of foreclosures aren't keeping up with the rising number of troubled homeowners, and critics say a Bush administration-backed mortgage industry coalition, dubbed Hope Now, is falling far short.

Nationwide, one out of every four sales between January and March was a distressed sale, and that figure jumps to more than 50% in the hardest-hit areas like Las Vegas, Detroit and distant suburbs of Los Angeles, according to Moody's Economy.com.