This Is What Happens When Predatory Lending Becomes Rampant

Homes facing foreclosure more than doubled in 1Q from 2007. All those fools who "bought" their nearly million dollar homes in CA and everywhere else? Now they're homeless and their credit is shot to hell.

This is what happens when the government gives in to special interests and rampantly allows big business to do what it wants.

I just can't imagine how this is now good for the businesses! They have to auction off houses, they lose money, or they're stuck with empty properties!

Some disturbing points:

One in every 194 households has received a foreclosure filing, which have increased forty-six states (that's out of fifty, folks - that's 92%). That means you probably know someone who is in foreclosure.

The surge in foreclosure filings also suggests that much-touted campaigns by lawmakers and the mortgage lending industry aimed at helping at-risk homeowners aren't paying off.

Nearly 157,000 properties were repossessed by lenders nationwide during the quarter, according to RealtyTrac.

California had the most properties facing foreclosure at 169,831, an increase of 213 percent from a year earlier. It also posted the second-highest foreclosure rate in the country, with one in every 78 households receiving a foreclosure-related notice (well, duh! that's what happens when property values shoot up as quickly as they did there - a big part of the reason we got the hell out!).

California metro areas accounted for six of the 10 U.S. metropolitan areas with the highest foreclosure rates in the first quarter.

Many of the areas - including Stockton, Riverside-San Bernardino, Fresno, Sacramento and Bakersfield - are located in inland areas of the state where many first-time buyers overextend themselves financially to buy properties that have plunged in value since the market peak.

"California still hasn't hit bottom," Sharga said. "We have a lot of California homes that are in early stages of default that may not be salvageable because either there's no market or financing available, or both."

The other states among the top 10 with the highest foreclosure rates were Colorado, Georgia, Michigan, Ohio, Massachusetts and Connecticut.