Article: Home foreclosures soar 38%
rockymountainnews.com.
By John Rebchook, Rocky Mountain News
April 2, 2003
Home foreclosures in the Denver area rose by 38 percent in the first quarter compared with the first three months of 2002.
Public trustees in the metro area reported they have begun processing an estimated 1,974 foreclosures so far, compared with 1,433 in the first three months of 2002.
It's a trend that has been growing with the bad economy.
Last year, 6,574 foreclosures were filed, 55.7 percent more than the 4,222 filed in 2001. Last year's tally was the highest since 1991, but far below the record of 17,122 in 1988.
Last year, foreclosures accounted for about 1.1 percent of all the homes on the market, while in 1988 they accounted for about 3.8 percent.
Gary Bauer, a real estate broker and consultant, said he expected foreclosures to be even higher.
"I would have thought they would have been 50 percent to 60 percent higher," Bauer said. "Given how bad the economy is and how many people are unemployed, I thought it would be up a lot more in the first quarter."
He said he expects foreclosures in 2003 to be about 20 percent higher than in 2002, as consumer spending picks up later this year, helping to create more jobs. |
