As of this week, 1 million new foreclosures have been filed in 2009, according to estimates by the Center for Responsible Lending, a nonprofit research and policy organization dedicated to preserving home ownership.

A new foreclosure starts every 13 seconds–nearly 6,500 a day.

“It’s easy to think, ‘Well, that’s tough luck for the families that lose their homes.’ The truth is that foreclosures are costing neighboring families hundreds of billions of dollars and dragging down the entire economy,” says Michael Calhoun, president of CRL.
Calhoun called on lenders and loan servicers to utilize the tools offered by the U.S. government to keep people in their homes.

Source: Center for Responsible Lending (06/01/2009)

While this article in factual, locally we are seeing the number of foreclosures being sold on the rise. That is Good News! This means that families are purchasing these properties, rehabbing them and thereby helping the re-establish neighborhood home prices. As the inventory of foreclosures decreases the market for non-distressed properties increases and neighborhood pricing will return to more normal levels. This is indeed “Good News”!