Family Life

01.15.09 | FL News Team

2008 produced a record number of home foreclosure filings in spite of state moratoriums that put filings on hold, in some cases for three months. RealtyTrac says for all of 2008 there were more than two-point-three-million filings, an 81-percent increase from 2007 and a massive 225-percent bump from 2006.

RealtyTrac says the two million figure boils down to one in every 54 homes receiving at least one notice of foreclosure from a lender during the year. Lenders actually repossessed more than 850-thousand properties last year, more than double the 404-thousand taken back in 2007.

RealtyTrac senior vice president Rich Sharga says he thinks January will be a record-setting month and that "we're in for a very difficult year."  The company suggests laws in California, Massachusetts and Maryland that placed moratoriums on filings did little more than delay the inevitable for thousands of homeowners.