More Owners KEEPING Their Homes

Foreclosures fall 6% nationally in May from April

By Alan Zibel |The Associated Press

7:48 AM EDT, June 11, 2009

WASHINGTON - The number of U.S. households on the verge of losing their homes dipped in May from April, and the annual increase was the smallest in three years.

But as layoffs, rather than risky mortgages, become the main reason that borrowers default on their home loans, foreclosures likely will remain elevated this year and into 2010. Many economists expect unemployment, now at 9.4 percent nationwide, to rise as high as 10 percent, and some project it will exceed the post-World War II record of 10.8 percent.

Foreclosure filings fell 6 percent in May from April, according to RealtyTrac Inc. More than 321,000 households received at least one foreclosure-related notice last month -- 18 percent more than a year earlier -- but the smallest annual gain since June 2006. Ohio had one of the highest foreclosure rates, though filings in the state dropped nearly 13 percent from a year ago.

Despite the drop from April, it was the third-highest monthly rate since Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac began its report in January 2005, and the third straight month with more than 300,000 households receiving a foreclosure filing.

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