Foreclosures Fall For Second Straight Month

Many experts expect the number of foreclosures to rise this year and the next two years as a large number of ARMs turn over into higher payments and rates.

Foreclosures are still near record highs, despite the modest dips recently.

Bank repossessions are jumping. Many of these homes have not been put back on the market yet. When they do, it will push prices down.

Obama's HOPE program and his subsidies for banks to modify loans is reducing the number of foreclosures. But at what price? What is it doing to the overall economy to keep distorting economic incentives? That reduces moral hazard so people don't have to pay the full consequences of their decisions.

Reuters says: Foreclosures that were delayed by various state and federal moratorium that mostly ended in March have been pushing through the system and analysts say the Obama administration's housing rescue plan has been slow to take hold.

REOs, or real estate-owned properties, rose to 87,821 in September from 76,134 the previous month, RealtyTrac said. Activity in the third quarter reached a record level.

Foreclosure filings were reported on 937,840 properties between July and September, a 5 percent increase from the previous quarter and an increase of nearly 23 percent from the same period a year earlier, the company said in its U.S. Foreclosure Market Report.

One in every 136 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing during the third quarter — the highest quarterly foreclosure rate since RealtyTrac began issuing its report in the first quarter of 2005.