Estimating the number of housing units at risk of foreclosure is challenging because the mortgages are held or serviced by a number of different entities. The information below represents data from only a few sources and should not be considered a comprehensive analysis.

• The Center for Responsible Lending estimates in a May 2009 report that 2.4 million foreclosures will occur in 2009 and 9 million will occur between 2009 and 2012. CRL also reports that these foreclosures will have a spillover effect by depressing the value of nearby homes, estimating that in 2009 alone, foreclosures will cause 69.5 million nearby homes to suffer price declines averaging $72,000 per home and resulting in $502 billion total decline in property values.

• According to testimony given by CRL before the U.S. Joint Economic Committee in July 2009, projections of foreclosures on all types of mortgages during the next five years estimate 13 million defaults. Nationwide currently one in ten homeowners is facing mortgage trouble and one in five homes is currently underwater.

• The Joint Center for Housing Studies' "The State of the Nation's Housing 2009" reports that foreclosure rates in California, Arizona, Nevada and Florida surged from less than 0.9 percent at the start of 2007 to 5.9 percent by the end of 2008. During the last quarter of 2008, the number of foreclosed loans in those four states accounted for 61 percent of the growth of all foreclosures nationwide.

• The State of the Nation's Housing 2009 also reports that the national homeownership rate has gone down from its peak of 69 percent in 2004 to 67.3 percent in the first quarter of 2009, erasing all of the gains made since 2000. The declining ownership rate signifies both a smaller share of people choosing to own homes and households that were forced from the market, either through foreclosure or tighter lending standards.

• The federal government continues to create efforts to prevent foreclosures and provide programs to assist homeowners. However, voluntary efforts have failed to make a real difference. The Office of Thrift Supervision's fourth-quarter 2008 report indicates that, of the loan modifications made by national banks and federal thrifts that lowered payments by 10 percent of more, one-fifth were at least 60 days delinquent within six months of the modification. In February 2009, the Obama Administration announced a new initiative, Making Home Affordable, to provide more opportunities for eligible households to qualify for a loan modification or to refinance.

   

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