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More than 155,000 families have lost their homes to foreclosure this year; one out of every 194 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Foreclosure filings in the first three months of 2008 rose more than 112% over last year, according to a study released Tuesday.

Real estate information firm RealtyTrac reported that nearly 650,000 foreclosure filings – which include notices of default, auction sales and bank repossessions – were issued in the first quarter. That represents 1 of every 194 households and marks a 23% increase from the last quarter of 2007.

So far this year 156,463 families have lost their homes to repossessions.

“Foreclosure activity hasn’t slowed down yet,” said Rick Sharga, spokesman for RealtyTrac. “But I was a little surprised that foreclosure filings more than doubled since last year.”

Foreclosures increased in 46 states and in 90 of the nation’s 100 largest metro areas. Some regions that had been only marginally hurt by the mortgage meltdown recorded large increases in filings. In Connecticut, for instance, filings tripled compared with the first three months of 2007. Massachusetts recorded a 260% increase.

Nevada: Hardest hit

The worst hit states are still clustered in the Southwest; Nevada, California and Arizona lead the nation in foreclosure filings. Prices ran up rapidly in these areas during the bubble years as speculators snapped up single-family homes and condos as investments.

In the first quarter, 1 of every 54 homes in Nevada received some type of foreclosure filing – more than any other state. Its largest city, Las Vegas, had 1 out of every 44 homes go into foreclosure.

Stockton, Calif., had the highest foreclosure rate out of any U.S. metro area, with 1 out of every 30 homes receiving a notice – nearly seven times higher than the national average. The Riverside/San Bernardino region had the second highest rate in the quarter, with one of every 38 homes in default.

Only two metro areas in the ranks of the 20 hardest hit were outside the Sunbelt – Detroit, which ranked sixth in the nation with 1 in every 68 households in default, and Cleveland which saw 1 in every 105 homes go into foreclosure.

The news comes despite increased foreclosure prevention efforts by lenders and community organizations. Hope Now, the coalition of mortgage lenders, servicers investors and community groups, announced Monday that it helped over a half a million home owners avoid foreclosure during the first three months of the year.

And some local governments have stepped up their programs to help borrowers, according to RealtyTrac CEO James Saccacio.

“For example, in late March Philadelphia issued a temporary moratorium on all foreclosure auctions for April,” he said. “The city has since adopted a program that will delay foreclosure proceedings on owner-occupied properties until the owners have met face-to-face with lenders to attempt to create a loan workout plan that would prevent foreclosure.”

More trouble ahead

Additionally, lawmakers in Washington, D.C. are at work on several plans that would deliver foreclosure relief to distressed borrowers.

All of these foreclosure prevention efforts may not be able to stand up to the tsunami of foreclosures on the way. Sharga says that a record number of hybrid adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) – worth $362 billion – will reset in 2008.

These so-called “exploding ARMs” usually have low introductory interest rates that reset much higher after two or three years, and then re-adjust as often as every six months after that. Unless these loans can be reworked, many will fail.

“We expect to see another foreclosure peak in the late third or fourth quarter of the year,” said Sharga, “because of the record number of resets coming.”

Full Article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080408/bs_afp/imfeconomyfinanceproperty

US mortgage crisis may cost $945 billion worldwide: IMF
by Veronica Smith Tue Apr 8, 3:58 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The International Monetary Fund said Tuesday the worldwide losses stemming from the US subprime mortgage crisis could hit 945 billion dollars as the impact spreads in the global economy.

The IMF, in a particularly stark report, said that falling US housing prices and rising delinquencies on the residential mortgage market could lead to losses of 565 billion dollars.

Combined with other categories of loans originated and securities issued in the United States related to commercial real estate, the consumer credit market, and corporations “increases aggregate potential losses to about 945 billion dollars,” it said.

“The crisis is spreading beyond the US subprime market — namely to the prime residential and commercial real estate markets, consumer credit, and the low- to high grade corporate credit markets,” the IMF said in releasing its semiannual Global Financial Stability Report.

While the US remains the epicenter, “financial institutions in other countries have also been affected, reflecting the same overly benign global financial conditions and to varying degrees — weaknesses in risk management systems and prudential supervision.”

It was the first time the multilateral institution has made an official estimate of the global losses suffered by banks and other financial institutions in the credit squeeze that began eight months ago in the US, amid rising defaults on subprime, or high-risk, home loans.

The staggering 945 billion dollar estimate of losses, made in March, represents roughly 142 dollars per person worldwide and represents four percent of the 23.21-trillion-dollar credit market.

The IMF said that global banks likely will shoulder about half of the losses — at 440 billion dollars to 510 billion.

Last month, Standard & Poor’s estimated global banking firms would likely write off 285 billion dollars in various securities linked to US subprime real estate, with more than half the losses already recognized. Some analysts have put the figure higher for the subprime market and related losses.

“Leading indicators point to a tightening of credit conditions across many economic activities,” Jaime Caruana, head of the IMF’s Monetary and Capital Markets Department, said at a news conference.

Caruana said the losses “suggest a potentially large impact on US economic growth,” and that Europe may also see tightening conditions and slowing credit growth under the global financial strain.

The IMF releases its biannual World Economic Outlook on Wednesday and already has said it would slash a half percentage point off its forecast of 2008 global economic growth, to 3.7 percent.

The Global Financial Stability Report cautioned that loss estimates were imperfect and could go higher.

The unusually precise and harsh report comes ahead of the IMF and the World Bank spring meetings Saturday and Sunday in Washington.

The IMF, whose core mission is to promote global financial stability, said there was “a collective failure to appreciate the extent of leverage taken on by a wide range of institutions — banks, monoline insurers, government-sponsored entities, hedge funds — and the associated risks of a disorderly unwinding.”

“It is now clear that the current turmoil is more than simply a liquidity event, reflecting deep-seated balance sheet fragilities and weak capital bases, which means its effects are likely to be broader, deeper, and more protracted,” it said.

The report criticizes the “excessive risk-taking” and “weak underwriting” undertaken by under-capitalized institutions and recommends measures including ratings systems reform and a change in compensation schemes for managers of financial institutions.

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