I read some statistics the other day that indicated that seniors make up about 30% of all foreclosures right now. That’s somewhat shocking, but also very sad considering that many of those could have been prevented with reverse mortgages. With a reverse mortgage, any existing payment would go away and you could receive a monthly payment for as long as you live in your home.

US foreclosure filings up 71 percent in 3Q

Foreclosure filings surge 71 percent in third quarter as mortgage crisis worsens
By ALAN ZIBEL AP Business Writer | AP
Oct 23, 2008

(WASHINGTON) The number of homeowners ensnared in the foreclosure crisis grew by more than 70 percent in the third quarter of this year compared with the same period in 2007, according to data released Thursday.

Nationwide, nearly 766,000 homes received at least one foreclosure-related notice from July through September, up 71 percent from a year earlier, said foreclosure listing service RealtyTrac Inc.

By the end of the year, RealtyTrac expects more than a million bank-owned properties to have piled up on the market, representing around a third of all properties for sale in the U.S.

That’s bad news for anyone who lives nearby and wants to sell their home. While foreclosure sales are booming in many areas, those properties are commanding deep discounts and pulling down neighboring property values. “It has a pretty significant impact in terms of pricing,” said Rick Sharga, RealtyTrac’s vice president for marketing.

RealtyTrac monitors default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions. More than 250,000 properties were repossessed by lenders nationwide in the third quarter, 81,000 of which were taken back last month.

Six states — California, Florida, Arizona, Ohio, Michigan and Nevada — accounted for more than 60 percent of all foreclosure activity in the quarter, with California alone making up more than a quarter of all U.S. foreclosure filings.

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