The number of foreclosure homes increased by more than five percent during the third quarter of 2009 when compared to the previous quarter.  The increase occurred despite the presence of the Making Home Affordable program of the federal government that attempts to help borrowers undergoing financial hardships to get a loan modification to reduce their monthly payments.  It appears that the government program has been overwhelmed by the large number of layoffs.

Approximately 48,000 homes were added to the number of foreclosure homes listed as of June 2009, thereby pushing up the number of foreclosed properties to 938,000 during the third quarter of 2009.  If the statistics are extrapolated to the end of 2009, there would be a total of about 3.5 million foreclosure filings for the whole year, which is much larger than the 2.3 million filings recorded for 2008.

The primary reason for the rise in the foreclosure rate, in the spite of many economists claiming that the recession is over, has been the unemployment rate, which has attained a record level of 9.8 percent for last the 26 years.  To make matters worse, the unemployment rate is predicted to continue to rise until it will reach its peak in the middle of 2010.  Mortgage lenders are trying to help by permitting the homeowners to be delayed by three to six months in their payments as they look for work.  Unfortunately, looking for work at a time when the unemployment rate has reached an all-time high is very tough.

The Administration of President Obama had recently reported that its initiative has attained an important milestone when more than 500,000 loan modifications have been granted.  However, the rise in the number of people defaulting on their loans has been much faster than the increase in the number of people getting loan modifications.

Somehow, mortgage companies have been trying to reduce the impact of the housing crisis by slowing down the rate of foreclosures.  They have been trying to examine whether the borrowers would be able to fulfill the requirements for the Making Home Affordable program of the Obama Administration.  However, experts predict that a substantial number of those borrowers would not qualify and they forecast a new set of forecloser homes coming into the market in 2010.  This is expected to pull down home market values further.  Banks and other lenders are unable to find a loan modification plan that is suitable for the present income capabilities of the homeowners in view of the gravity of their financial hardships. For more foreclosure news stop by http://www.bestforeclosurenews.com

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