In Case You Didn't Notice, There's A Recession

Foreclosures happened because people were given loans they couldn't afford to pay back, and they happened because housing price declines meant people couldn't refinance and weren't as invested in remaining if they were underwater, and they're going to happen as option ARMs start recasting. And, of course, they're going to happen because people don't have jobs.

June 30 (Bloomberg) -- Delinquency rates on the least risky mortgages more than doubled in the first quarter from a year earlier as U.S. efforts to help homeowners failed to keep pace with job losses that pushed more borrowers toward foreclosure.

Prime mortgages 60 days or more past due climbed to 2.9 percent of such loans through March 31 from 1.1 percent at the same point in 2008, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision said today in a report. First-time foreclosure filings on the loans rose 22 percent from the fourth quarter, the report said.