Interpreting the Foreclosure News

By now you've heard the news on foreclosures released today. Here are some of the numbers according to ForeclosurePulse blog and cnn.com: 405,000 lost their homes in the U.S. in 2007 versus 268,532 in 2006, a 51 percent increase - 66,000 lost their homes in California alone; foreclosure filings totaled 2.2 million - a 75 percent increase over 2006; the percentage of households in the U.S. in some stage of foreclosure is up from 0.58 percent in 2006 to more than 1 percent in 2007. (To read either article these stats are taken from, click: Foreclosures Continue to Soar or Unraveling 2007 Foreclosure Numbers. To see a cool map that lays it out visually, click: Foreclosure Rate Map.) Now I guess after you take this latest news in - and as it relates to real estate - you could say it's just adding insult to injury. Right? We already knew things were going south. The numbers are just bearing that out. But beyond that, and at the risk of being called a "Pollyanna," I couldn't help but note one comment on the ForeclosurePulse blog which had to do with the last stat above about U.S. households: More than 1 percent have been in some stage of foreclosure in 2007. The comment on the blog was this: "Why isn't the head line 'ALMOST 99% OF AMERICAN HOME OWNERS PAYING MORTGAGE ON TIME.' All you are doing is fanning the flames." And he's right (or was it a she?). There are still a ton of people out there who are doing okay holding on to their homes and even in a challenging time. I think it's something that those of us in the real estate business ought not forget. The glass may be half empty, yes. But it's also half full at the same time. And in the case of the latest news regarding foreclosures, it's almost 99% full.