US home foreclosures and the rate of homes entering the foreclosure process rose to a record in the third quarter, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said today.
Problems with payments on all loan types drove up the pace of homes entering the foreclosure process, the trade group said, as homeowners battled slumping house prices and rising loan payments.
About 994,000 US households are in the process of foreclosure, said Doug Duncan, the MBA's chief economist.
"Not all of them will lose their house, but that's how many are currently at serious risk of losing their house," he said. The percentage of loans in the foreclosure process rose to 1.69 per cent of loans outstanding, up 0.29 percentage point from the prior quarter and up 0.64 from a year earlier.
Subprime adjustable-rate mortgages represented just 6.8 per cent of all loans but were 43 per cent of foreclosures started in the third quarter.
The rate of loans entering the foreclosure process rose to a seasonally adjusted 0.78 per cent in the third quarter, up 0.13 percentage point from the prior quarter and up 0.32 point from a year earlier.
