Home foreclosures were up 79 percent higher last year

There is really not much more I can say about this CNBC story, except that the housing market is in a complete mess. From CNBC:

The number of U.S. homes that slipped into some stage of foreclosure in 2007 was 79 percent higher than in the previous year, a real estate tracking company said Tuesday.

Many homeowners started to fall behind on mortgage payments in the last three months, setting the stage for more foreclosures this year.

About 1.3 million homes received foreclosure-related warnings last year, up from 717,522 in 2006, Irvine-based RealtyTrac said. Foreclosure filings rose 75 percent from the previous year to 2.2 million.

More than 1 percent of all U.S. households were in some phase of the foreclosure process last year, up from about half a percent in 2006, RealtyTrac said.

Nevada, Florida, Michigan and California posted the highest foreclosure rates, the company said.

The story does say that if the economy doesn't deteriorate due to some other unforeseen circumstance, then the bulk of foreclosures, those caused by adjustable-rate mortgages given to borrowers with poor credit, will be exhausted by June of this year. That may be true, but don't expect the housing crash to turn around quickly after June. Banks have almost a years' supply worth of homes on their books, and almost no one to sell those homes with their tightened credit standards--Americans who have seen their homes foreclosed are not going to be on the market soon. I think we're going to see a period where home sales are going to be very slow, with prices dropping significantly, before the demand for housing starts to pick up. I'm thinking the housing slump will last to between two to five years.