Housing Recovery Distant As Foreclosures Continue Rising

from 24/7 Wall Street:
Looking back to early 2010, this is about the time of year many economists and real estate experts believed that the housing market would recover. GDP growth in the third quarter, they reasoned, would be at more 3% or 4% if the rebound was robust. Unemployment would begin to improve as a rising tide lifted all ships.
It has not turned out that way. Almost every major government and private sector report shows home values falling, home prices being cut, and the number of underwater mortgages rising from 11 million, which is  over 20% of all home loans in the US.
RealtyTrac, which measures home value activity on a monthly basis, reports that foreclosures rose 4% in July compared with June. The firm defines foreclosures as “default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions.” The July number was 325,229, which puts the pace for the year at nearly 4 million. That would be higher than the 2009 number. One in 397 homes were in the foreclosure process last month.“July marked the 17th consecutive month with a foreclosure activity total exceeding 300,000,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “Declines in new default notices, which were down on a year-over-year basis for the sixth straight month in July, have been offset by near-record levels of bank repossessions, which increased on a year-over-year basis for the eighth straight month.”