More bad news: Housing foreclosure activity remains at record levels

Filed in archive becoming a better borrower on May 14, 2009

You can always count on RealtyTrac for bad news, at least these days.

The online provider of foreclosure data didn't disappoint this month, when it released its April foreclosure report. The report showed that housing foreclosure activity remained at record levels during the month.

According to the report, 342,038 U.S. properties received foreclosure filings in April. These filings include default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions. That's an increase of 32 percent from the same month one year earlier.

In fact, RealtyTrac reported that one in every 374 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing of some sort in April. That's the highest monthly foreclosure rate that RealtyTrac has reported since it began issuing its report in early 2005.

This is distressing news. I can't imagine how terrifying it would be for homeowners to face the prospect of losing their residences.

But if you do find yourself falling behind on your monthly mortgage payments, you must call your mortgage lender immediately. Remember, your lender sees no financial benefit from seeing you lose your home. It's in their best interests to work wtih homeowners to make sure this doesn't happen.

Often, lenders will work with homeowners to renegotiate the terms of their mortgage loans to make sure that these owners can keep their homes.

I know it's embarrassing, and frightening, to have to call your lender with the news that you can't make their monthly mortgage payments. But making that call can mean the difference between losing your home and keeping it.