Friday, January 16, 2009

When foreclosures outnumber new homes

The Boston.com Real Estate Blog says:

Here’s another bad sign of the times.

The number of people losing their homes to foreclosure across the country is now outstripping the number of new homes being built.

More than 860,000 homes were foreclosed on last year, a new report by RealtyTrac finds.

Overall, banks and other lenders sent out more than 3 million foreclosure notices last year, signaling the start of the foreclosure process.

That means more than 200,000 homes last year were seized by banks and other lenders than were built by developers.