There was an increase in the count of Decatur foreclosure and other troubled properties in different markets of Georgia in November. Georgia ranked 6th among the fifty states of USA in November as far as the foreclosure rate is concerned. This region saw as many as 14,423 foreclosures in this month, which indicates that 1 out of every 279 houses was suffering from foreclosure.

The count mentioned above consists of foreclosed homes that are up for sale, houses that got default notices, estates listed for auctions, and repossessed properties. There has been a hike of 49.2 percent in the total count from November the previous year. Still, in comparison to last month, the figure has actually gone down by 2.88 percent.

The situation was no better in Atlanta, where there were 10,909 foreclosures in the month of November. This implies that one out of every 209 households was undergoing foreclosure in the metro area of Atlanta at that time. An increase by forty-seven percent has been worked out in comparison with the same month last year. However, just like it happened in Georgia, the foreclosure count decreased in Atlanta by about six percent in comparison to the month of October, 2010.

The statewide performance of Georgia as well as the area-wide performance of Atlanta was found to be poor in comparison to the nation’s performance in the genre of foreclosures filings and sales. In the entire U.S., there were 262,339 foreclosures undertaken in the month of November, which definitely qualifies as a twenty-one percent decline from the last month of October. If compared to November last year, then too the foreclosure count all around the nation decreased and the year-to-date difference was 14 percent.

In November, one out of every 492 dwellings has encountered a foreclosure notice in the U.S. Housing analysts reported that foreclosure related actions slowed down to a large extent in the month of November this year. Actually, it was the first time since February of previous year that the foreclosure count has gone below 300,000 in the U.S. This has happened mainly due to the consequences of the robo-signing issue.

LOS ANGELES — The foreclosure crisis is getting worse as high unemployment and lackluster job prospects force homeowners in an increasing number of U.S. metropolitan areas into dire financial straits.

In Seattle, Houston and Chicago, cities that were relatively insulated from foreclosures early on in the housing bust, a growing number of homeowners are falling behind on mortgage payments and finding themselves on the receiving end of foreclosure warnings. Others have already seen their homes repossessed by lenders.

All told, foreclosure activity jumped in 149 of the country’s 206 largest metropolitan areas last year, foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday.

The firm tracks notices for defaults, scheduled home auctions and home repossessions — warnings that can lead up to a home eventually being lost to foreclosure.

Job loss, rather than time-bomb mortgages resetting to higher payments, has become the main driver behind rising foreclosures.

“We’ve actually had a sea change in what’s causing foreclosures, from the overheated home prices and bad loans to a second wave of foreclosures actually caused by unemployment and economic displacement,” says Rick Sharga, a senior vice president at RealtyTrac.

The Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown metropolitan area in Texas saw its foreclosure rate jump 26 percent from 2009, the largest increase among the top 20 biggest metro areas, the firm said.

Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, in Washington, ranked second with an increase of nearly 23 percent, while the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta metro area in Georgia was third with a 21 percent bump.

In the Chicago-Naperville-Joliet metropolitan area, foreclosure activity rose 16 percent, while home repossessions climbed nearly 20 percent, RealtyTrac said.

“As the economy and unemployment improve, you’ll see those markets recover fairly quickly, whereas you’re still going to have a bit of a hangover in places like California, Florida and Nevada,” Sharga said.

Those states, and Arizona, remain the country’s foreclosure hotbeds, accounting for 19 of the top 20 metropolitan areas with the highest foreclosure rates in 2010.

Still, foreclosure activity in many of the metro areas in these states actually declined last year.

Las Vegas-Paradise, Nev., registered the highest foreclosure rate in the nation, with one in every nine households receiving a foreclosure-related notice in 2010 — nearly five times the national average. But the metropolitan area’s foreclosure activity fell 7 percent from the prior year.

Three California metro areas posted among the biggest annual drops in foreclosure activity: Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, down 20 percent; San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, down 17 percent; and, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, down 16 percent.

A big reason for the decline is lenders took steps to delay foreclosure actions in these states as they sought to manage the flow of troubled properties coming onto their books. In the final months of last year, several lenders went further, temporarily halting foreclosure activity to deal with allegations of improper evictions.

Most banks have since resumed taking action against borrowers behind in payments, however, and the pace of foreclosures is expected to pick up this year and ultimately outpace 2010 levels.

“We believe we’re going to see an abnormally high growth of foreclosure activity in the first quarter and we do expect that 2011 will be another record year for foreclosure activity and bank repossessions,” Sharga said, adding he projects bank repossessions will rise by at least 20 percent.

That’s likely to drag down home values further, potentially pushing more homeowners into negative equity — when a borrower owes more on their mortgage than the market value of their home.

About 2.4 million U.S. homeowners have only 5 percent or less equity in their homes, according to data from CoreLogic.

Lenders took back 1 million properties in 2010, and no metro area saw more homes repossessed by lenders than Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale in Arizona.

Some 55,372 properties were taken back by lenders there last year, up 17 percent from the year before.

The Chicago metro area was second, followed by the Detroit-Warren-Livonia metro area in Michigan. Its home repossessions rose 19 percent.

Wave of foreclosures has hit nearly 200 US churches in two years, with more to come

The house of God has become the latest victim of the property crunch, according to a survey. Nearly 200 US churches have had their properties seized by lenders since 2008 – compared to eight in the two previous years – and more are to come.

Religious leaders were just as swept up by the property boom and bust as their parishioners, according to a survey by CoStar Group.

During the years of feast religious leaders took advantage of easy credit to build bigger churches and cater to bigger, richer congregations. Now the years of famine mean smaller, poorer congregations but still facing the bills for the bigger houses of worship they built.

Foreclosure proceedings against US churches have more than tripled since 2007, when the recession took hold. All religious denominations have suffered as donations have declined. But the financial crisis has hit independent churches hardest because they lack well funded governing bodies capable of bailing them out.

Last year Ebenezer AME, one of the biggest churches in the US, with a congregation of 10,000, ran into trouble with its lenders. Banks demanded the church cut expenses as it struggled to make its mortgage payments.

An investigation by a Memphis, Tennessee, television station found hundreds of churches in the city fighting foreclosure. There are 200 churches in Atlanta alone facing foreclosure, according to Reverend Jesse Jackson, founder of civil rights organisation Rainbow/Push.

Jackson said African American and Latino communities had been hit particularly hard: “It’s communities not just churches that are in foreclosure. We have paid more for less, churches and their members are being dragged down by debt,” he said. “The church is the centre of our community.”

Chris Macke, analyst at CoStar, said the boom in foreclosures was due to the financial squeeze on parishioners and overly aggressive projections of future income from churches.

Churches had fallen victim to “recency bias,” he said. “Whatever happened most recently is what will happen in perpetuity, which is ironic considering that churches deal in issues of perpetuity,” he said.

The foreclosure crisis is getting worse as high unemployment and lacklustre job prospects force homeowners in an increasing number of U.S. metropolitan areas into dire financial straits.

In Seattle, Houston and Chicago, cities that were relatively insulated from foreclosures early on in the housing bust, a growing number of homeowners are falling behind on mortgage payments and finding themselves on the receiving end of foreclosure warnings. Others have already seen their homes repossessed by lenders.

All told, foreclosure activity jumped in 149 of the country’s 206 largest metropolitan areas last year, foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac Inc.  said Thursday.

The firm tracks notices for defaults, scheduled home auctions and home repossessions – warnings that can lead up to a home eventually being lost to foreclosure.

Job loss, rather than time-bomb mortgages resetting to higher payments, has become the main driver behind rising foreclosures.

“We’ve actually had a sea change in what’s causing foreclosures, from the overheated home prices and bad loans to a second wave of foreclosures actually caused by unemployment and economic displacement,” says Rick Sharga, a senior vice-president at RealtyTrac.

The Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown metropolitan area in Texas saw its foreclosure rate jump 26 per cent from 2009, the largest increase among the top 20 biggest metro areas, the firm said.

Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, in Washington, ranked second with an increase of nearly 23 per cent, while the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta metro area in Georgia was third with a 21 per cent bump.

In the Chicago-Naperville-Joliet metropolitan area, foreclosure activity rose 16 per cent, while home repossessions climbed nearly 20 per cent, RealtyTrac said.

“As the economy and unemployment improve, you’ll see those markets recover fairly quickly, whereas you’re still going to have a bit of a hangover in places like California, Florida and Nevada,” Mr. Sharga said.

Those states, and Arizona, remain the country’s foreclosure hotbeds, accounting for 19 of the top 20 metropolitan areas with the highest foreclosure rates in 2010.

Still, foreclosure activity in many of the metro areas in these states actually declined last year.

Las Vegas-Paradise, Nev., registered the highest foreclosure rate in the nation, with one in every nine households receiving a foreclosure-related notice in 2010 – nearly five times the national average. But the metropolitan area’s foreclosure activity fell 7 per cent from the prior year.

Three California metro areas posted among the biggest annual drops in foreclosure activity: Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, down 20 per cent; San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, down 17 per cent; and, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, down 16 per cent.

A big reason for the decline is lenders took steps to delay foreclosure actions in these states as they sought to manage the flow of troubled properties coming onto their books. In the final months of last year, several lenders went further, temporarily halting foreclosure activity to deal with allegations of improper evictions.

Most banks have since resumed taking action against borrowers behind in payments, however, and the pace of foreclosures is expected to pick up this year and ultimately outpace 2010 levels.

“We believe we’re going to see an abnormally high growth of foreclosure activity in the first quarter and we do expect that 2011 will be another record year for foreclosure activity and bank repossessions,” Mr. Sharga said, adding he projects bank repossessions will rise by at least 20 per cent.

That’s likely to drag down home values further, potentially pushing more homeowners into negative equity – when a borrower owes more on their mortgage than the market value of their home.

About 2.4 million U.S. homeowners have only 5 per cent or less equity in their homes, according to data from CoreLogic.

Lenders took back 1 million properties in 2010, and no metro area saw more homes repossessed by lenders than Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale in Arizona.

Some 55,372 properties were taken back by lenders there last year, up 17 per cent from the year before.

The Chicago metro area was second, followed by the Detroit-Warren-Livonia metro area in Michigan. Its home repossessions rose 19 per cent.