Foreclosure Rate Continues To Soar

February 14th, 2008

The foreclosure rate continues to soar in the state and during January 2008, Dane County reached a peak. The number of foreclosure homes in Wisconsin was 2,443, which was a jump of 45 percent since last year. This signifies that there were 116 foreclosures taking place on every single business day of the last month.

According to the figures available from ForeclosureWl.com, the foreclosure rate in Wisconsin has made a jump of 70 percent over the last three years. Robert Jansen, the president of the website remarks that the foreclosure rate is staggering. He goes on to say that the rate will go higher in the year 2008 and some experts are predicting that the housing market recovery would not happen before year 2010.

RealtyTrac observes that the national foreclosure rate had marked a 79 percent rise in the year 2007. The foreclosure rate rose higher in Dane County compared to the rest of the state and the jump was almost 80 percent. Last month, a total number of 124 properties faced foreclosure, while the figure last year was 69. Residential as well as commercial properties are included in the given figure. This also includes the foreclosure which the Metropolitan Place Phase II condominium tower at downtown Madison, faced on January 28^th.

The Dane County Circuit Court had filed an unpaid debt of around $26 million on that property. Maximum foreclosures took place in Milwaukee County in January, where the figure had risen to 616 from 410. In the second place was Dane County where the figure was 124. In third position was Racine County, with a figure of 116, followed by Waukesha County which had a figure of 90. Jansen also states that, there were several factors behind this fast increasing rate of foreclosure. These factors were mortgage defaults, adjustable mortgage schemes and a reasonably easy real-estate market. Jansen feels that the pressure on the borrowers is pretty high and they are unable to manage their debts even by selling their property as a means of avoiding foreclosure.

There are so many houses available in the market, the demand is pretty low and so it has become all the more difficult to sell property very easily. The crisis in subprime mortgage and the rising rate of mortgage defaults has also prompted many lenders to resort to stricter lending terms, making it difficult for the defaulters to look at refinancing as a viable option.