Third-Quarter Foreclosures Reach Record High

Home foreclosures and the rate of homes entering the foreclosure process rose to record highs in the third quarter, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Thursday.

Problems with payments on all loan types drove up the pace of homes entering the foreclosure process, the trade group said in its delinquency and foreclosure survey,

"The effect of seizure of nonconforming securitization, broad-based house price declines, continued regional economic weakness and broad-based payment adjustments on adjustable rate mortgages were all working together in the quarter for the first time," said the MBA's chief economist Doug Duncan.

The percentage of loans in the foreclosure process rose to 1.69 percent of loans outstanding, up 0.29 percentage point from the prior quarter and up 0.64 from a year earlier.

The rate of loans entering the foreclosure process rose to a seasonally adjusted 0.78 percent in the third quarter, up 0.13 percentage point from the prior quarter and up 0.32 point from a year earlier.

Late payments on mortgages jumped to the highest level since 1986, according to the survey that the group started in 1972.