foreclosures

The U.S. housing market is stuck in a bad spot. Home sales tumbled again in February, and median home prices fell to their lowest level since 2002.

A glut of forecloses in the market is pushing down prices.

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The reason for the drop in foreclosure filings is because banks are taking longer to process them because their paperwork procedures are under greater legal scrutiny.

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U.S. foreclosures matched their highest level on record at the end of 2010. That's frustrating to one of the nation's financial watchdogs.

Neil Barofsky is the special inspector general for TARP, which is the massive federal bank bailout program.

He says the administration's program to prevent foreclosures is broken.

About 25 percent of households with a mortgage owe more than their house is worth. To prevent further foreclosures, some economists want the government to take bolder action and automatically refinance homeowners.

Others say it should back away and allow the market to chart its own course.

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High levels of foreclosures in a community do not independently lead to increased crime rates, as previously believed, according to new research from The University of Texas at Austin.

More than 6.4 million U.S. properties entered foreclosure between 2007 and 2009, according to RealtyTrac, the largest foreclosure database in the nation.

As the dire consequences of [...]

One year after the financial crisis hit, the foreclosure mess hasn't improved. Economists repeatedly have said that preventing foreclosures is good for the housing market and the economy.

But despite a major effort by the Obama administration, many loan modifications aren't going through.

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New figures show the number of people in trouble with their mortgages continues to rise. According to foreclosure listing service RealtyTrac Inc, more than 336,000 households received at least one foreclosure-related notice in June.

That's 33 percent higher compared to June of last year.

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New figures out this week show that foreclosure filings are up 32 percent from a year ago. Our Planet Money team found that some people in the mortgage industry are saying something remarkable: as many as half of these foreclosures don't need to happen.

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