(RTTNews) - RealtyTrac released its Year-End 2009 Foreclosure Market Report Thursday, showing that a record 2.8 million U.S. properties with foreclosure filings in 2009.
According to the report, a total of 3,957,643 foreclosure filings ? default notices, scheduled foreclosure auctions and bank repossessions ? were reported on 2,824,674 U.S. properties in 2009.
This represented a 21% increase in total properties from 2008 and a 120% increase in total properties from 2007.
In addition, 2.21% of all U.S. housing units (one in 45) received at least one foreclosure filing during the year, up from 1.84% in 2008, 1.03% in 2007 and 0.58% in 2006.
Foreclosure filings were reported on 349,519 properties in December, up 14% from November and up 15% from December 2008. Despite this increase, foreclosure activity in the fourth quarter decreased 7% from the third quarter, though it was still an 18% increase from 2008's fourth quarter.
"As bad as the 2009 numbers are, they probably would have been worse if not for legislative and industry-related delays in processing delinquent loans," said James Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac.
He added, "After peaking in July with over 361,000 homes receiving a foreclosure notice, we saw four straight monthly decreases driven primarily by short-term factors: trial loan modifications, state legislation extending the foreclosure process and an overwhelming volume of inventory clogging the foreclosure pipeline."
"Despite all the delays, foreclosure activity still hit a record high for our report in 2009, capped off by a substantial increase in December," Saccacio said.
Looking ahead, he said, "In the long term, a massive supply of delinquent loans continues to loom over the housing market, and many of those delinquencies will end up in the foreclosure process in 2010 and beyond as lenders gradually work their way through the backlog."
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