EmploymentCrossing.com The amount of homeowners trapped in the foreclosure crisis grew by more than 70 percent in the third quarter of 2008, compared with the same period in 2007, according to data released Thursday. Nationwide, nearly 766,000 homes received at least one foreclosure-related notice from July through September, up 71 percent from a year earlier, said foreclosure listing service RealtyTrac, Inc. By the end of the year, RealtyTrac expects more than a million bank-owned properties to have piled up on the market, representing a third of all properties for sale in the U.S. RealtyTrac monitors default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions. More than 250,000 properties were repossessed by lenders nationwide in the third quarter. Accounting for more than 60 percent of all foreclosure activity for the quarter were California, Florida, Arizona, Ohio, Michigan and Nevada, with California alone making up more than a quarter of all U.S. foreclosure filings. The combination of sinking home values, stricter mortgage lending criteria, and an economy that many think has already slipped into recession has left hundreds of thousands of homeowners with few options. Many sellers cannot find buyers or owe more money than their home is worth and can’t refinance into an affordable loan. It remains to be seen how much the government’s intervention will stem the housing crisis. Earlier this month, the Federal Housing Administration launched a program that aims to prevent foreclosures by allowing homeowners to swap their mortgages for more affordable loans, but only if their lender agrees to take a loss on the initial loan. The bill is projected to help about 400,000 households.

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