Bank foreclosures in Madison and in the rest of the state recorded lower numbers compared with 2009 levels, although the difference between the two years' totals was less than 1,000. Total filings for 2010 reached 29,940 which represented a slight improvement from record 2009 levels when total filings reached 30,639 according to data released by ForeclosureAlarm. In terms of percentage, the decline was pegged at 2.2%.

According to most housing market analysts, the same will likely happen in 2011. If the economy improves, the number of Wisconsin foreclosures for sale might decline, but only slightly. Analysts stated that the less-than-enthusiastic predictions are based on the fact that most factors that feed foreclosures have not been eliminated. These factors, analysts explained, include high unemployment levels and mortgage loans that are worth more than the values of homes for which they were taken out.

Housing experts have also stated that the more filings issued and more properties put under a foreclosures list, the more depressed the prices of residential properties become, which in turn creates pressure on the overall economy. All these factors, experts agree, can lead to further loan delinquencies and heavier bank losses. Despite the gloomy outlook for 2011, majority of analysts agree that the bottom seemed to have been hit when it comes to foreclosure-related filings.

Since 2007, full year total numbers of bank foreclosed homes and other foreclosure properties have not gone lower than 21,000 in Wisconsin. The increase from 2006 was considerable given that in that year, 16,500 filings were recorded. In 2005, the state had 12,300 foreclosure-related filings. Foreclosures climbed in December in most counties of the state, but still ended the year with a decline of about 2% when compared with 2009 levels.

Analysts stated that the problem of foreclosures has been gradually happening during the early part of the decade, but it took some time before it became a really serious issue. They stated that recovery will also be slow, with properties under foreclosures list declining slowly within a few years.

Before even browsing through government foreclosure listings you should brush up on you knowledge of foreclosures. There are generally two types of foreclosures, the judicial and the non-judicial.

Judicial Foreclosure Proceedings

Judicial foreclosures happen by virtue of judicial proceedings. There are cases where the home owner of the distressed home is required to appear before the judge sitting on the case. Judicial proceedings are in place to protect the interests of the parties to the foreclosure, especially the home owner facing a foreclosure. The court is a venue where the home owner can contest the foreclosure or negotiate for restructured terms. While the proceedings are ongoing, the homeowners are allowed to stay in their home.

Non-Judicial Foreclosure Proceedings

Non-judicial foreclosures obviously do not involve the courts. The whole process of foreclosure moves faster as there are only two parties to it. Once the notice of foreclosure is sent to the home owner, they can either act to stop the foreclosure by filing an injunction or even a bankruptcy.

The Benefits of Government Foreclosure Listings

Perhaps the best thing about government foreclosure listings is the options it offers. There are several government agencies who are offering foreclosed properties. The lead agency is of course the Housing and Urban Development, which also supports the two major mortgage securitization companies Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Other government offices include the Veterans Affairs Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Agriculture and many more. Information on these government foreclosures are not hard to find, buyers can simply visit each of these agencies' web site or they can consult their real estate broker or agent.

While an online listing may have done away with some of the menial tasks associated with finding a property, most of the most important tasks would still have to be accomplished by the buyer. And still sometimes, driving around to seek for sale signs may yield the occasional stroke of good luck. There may be some properties that have just hit the market and is not yet listed on any service.

Newspapers may still be a good resource but they have clearly been taken over by any online foreclosure list. But sometimes newspapers can carry listings that have not made it online.

Experts say the most effective manner of finding homes is by enlisting the aid of a certified real estate broker or agent operating the area where the home you are considering is located. A real estate broker can give you a comprehensive and timely foreclosure list. He can likewise teach you how to search for properties by price and location. Plus brokers know the industry intimately and they can ably represent you in any foreclosure negotiations. A good broker may additionally provide you appropriate guidance to allow a person to come up with the ideal option.

Do-It-Yourself

Many buyers opt to conduct their search on their own and this is perfectly fine as the resources online are abundant. Any online foreclosure list will offer tools and services to make the search less complicated and easy even for new users. Most have powerful search engines that can be customized to yield only the homes that meet the searcher's requirements.

While you are online you may also want to spend time checking out the site of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for leads on distressed properties.

The number of pre foreclosures available for sale has risen in recent months after the federal government launched its Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives program last year. The program was designed to help troubled homeowners avoid foreclosure in a more realistic way. The Home Affordable Modification Program has not been effective in preventing foreclosure for a huge majority of borrowers who joined the program.

Nationwide, both the number and percentage of homes repossessed by lenders in April increased despite the 9-percent slowdown in overall foreclosure activity. In April, a total of 92,432 homes were repossessed, a jump of 0.94 percent from March, when 91,568 homes became REO units. The percentage of REO units as a portion of total foreclosure filings also increased from 24.95 percent in March to 27.69 percent in April.

This increase in completed foreclosures prompted federal officials to launch a program that would handle pre foreclosures. If more troubled homeowners decide to sell their homes through short sales and more lenders accept the short sale proposals, then more homes would be saved from getting into list of bank owned properties.

Similarly, listings that contain foreclosures in New York also feature pre foreclosure homes for sale in the city and state of New York. Foreclosure listings now are easy to use as their search tools are fast and targeted. Prospective buyers can explore immediately lists of homes in neighborhoods they are targeting.

The more reliable foreclosure listings also provide current information on both foreclosure and pre foreclosure properties, so customers are getting correct and real-time information.

In the first quarter, foreclosure filings in New York City surged by more than 16 percent to a total of 4,226 postings. Consequently, people looking for pre foreclosures in the Bronx can still find a lot of them through the use of reliable foreclosure listings.

Horizon Bank, based in Bellingham, Washington, took the sad record of being the first bank to fail in 2010. On January 8, the bank was closed and acquired by Washington Federal Savings and Loan Association. It had $1.3 billion in assets and $1.1 billion in deposits in the third quarter of last year.

On January 15, three banks were closed: the Saint Stephen State Bank in Minnesota, the Town Community Bank and Trust in Illinois and the Barnes Banking Company in Utah.

The deposits of Saint Stephen, which had $24.7 million in assets and $23.4 million in deposits as of September 30 last year, were assumed by Minnesota-based First State Bank.

The deposits of Town Community, which had $69.6 million in assets and $67.4 million in deposits, were acquired by Illinois-based First American Bank.

In the case of Barnes Banking, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation created an entity called Deposit Insurance National Bank to service depositors until February 12, 2010 and enable them to open new accounts in other banks. Barnes Banking had $827.8 million in assets and $786.5 million in deposits.

Bank foreclosure list growth also clobbered the five banks that closed on January 25 – the Columbia River Bank in Oregon, Evergreen Bank in Washington State, Charter Bank in New Mexico, Bank of Leeton in Missouri, and Premier American Bank in Florida.

Like the 140 banks that succumbed to the weight of commercial and residential foreclosures and short sales foreclosures, these nine banks also suffered from large percentages of nonperforming mortgage loans.

Columbia River, with about $1.1 billion in assets and $1 billion in deposits, was taken over by Tacoma, Washington-based Columbia State Bank. The deposits of Evergreen, with $488.5 million in assets and $439.4 million in deposits, were assumed by Umpqua Bank.

Meanwhile, the deposits of Santa Fe-based Charter Bank were taken over by Albuquerque-based Charter Bank. Bank of Leeton was taken over by Sunflower Bank of Kansas while Premier American Bank was taken over by a newly chartered national institution also called Premier American Bank.

Miami-based Premier American Bank was the first bank to fail in 2010 in Florida, among the states hardest hit by bank foreclosure list growth.

This week, among commercial foreclosure actions filed in South Florida was a lawsuit that sought to foreclose on the $3 million mortgage secured by a South Beach commercial building owned by South Collins Property Investment, which is headed by Raymond and Dani Mitri.

South Collins purchased the property in 2003 for $1 million and then took a development loan worth $2.9 million in 2008 using the property as collateral. With the loan still unpaid, lender FirstBank Puerto Rico is set to seize the building, which is occupied by clothing store Oyuki.

Another property that will likely go into bank foreclosures listings is a portion of the Century Grand residential project in Doral. A total of 152.9 undeveloped acres of the 370-acre housing project are being claimed by Wachovia Bank to recover a mortgage loan that has grown to $65.6 million.

Sergio Pino and several of his development companies took out the Wachovia loan to develop Century Grand into a commercial and residential site, with 4,600 townhomes, a commercial complex with residential units on top floors, a recreational center, a charter school and a church. But only one sales center was built on the site.

Pino last modified his mortgage loan in 2006 to $75 million using his Atlas Property I enterprise. The other parts of the Century project were used to take out a loan of $20.7 million from Ocean Bank in Miami and a loan of $76.7 million from BankUnited.

In addition to the foreclosure lawsuits in connection with the Century Grand project, Pino is also facing a separate lawsuit filed by BankUnited to enforce a personal guarantee he made to enable Century Grand I to obtain a $34.3 million loan. BankUnited claimed that the loan has become outstanding because Pino did not pay the $5-million real estate tax on the land.

Another foreclosure lawsuit tormenting Pino is an action targeting an uncompleted office building in Coral Gables. Mercantil Commercebank has filed a case to collect on the $4.4 million loan it provided to Pino to develop the building.

With the number of commercial properties entering bank foreclosures listings in the state, Florida has not only been among states topping records in residential foreclosures; it has also been among states topping lists of commercial foreclosures.

In a talk with reporters, Zandi said that home prices will fall again in the coming months as more mortgage lenders will pursue foreclosure actions on mortgages not qualified under the Home Affordable Modification Program.

Zandi explained that foreclosure filings and foreclosure sales slowed down in many areas during some months this year, but the slowdown was only a lull. He said that this was caused by the intensified efforts by the federal government to pressure mortgage lenders to modify loans. Lenders, he said, suspended many of their foreclosure filings to comply.

The economist also said that home prices nationwide will hit their bottom next year during the July-September quarter after dropping by 38 percent, based on house price estimates by Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller.

He said that the Case-Shiller price index reached its highest level in the April-June quarter in 2006 and hit its lowest level this year in the first quarter, marking a decline of around 32 percent.

Zandi also explained that the increase in house prices in many areas was driven by temporary declines in sales from foreclosure lists. He added that majority of the estimated 7.5 million foreclosed homes that would be sold off between the years 2006 and 2011 have not yet been sold. About 4.8 million foreclosed properties will be released for sale between this year and 2011.

The housing market has been showing some signs of recovery because of increases in sales in a lot of areas, driven largely by record-low mortgage rates, high home affordability levels and the record number of first time home buyers who took advantage of the federal tax credit program, which was set to expire last November 30 but which was extended until April next year.

According to Zandi, two significant reasons for the continued rise in foreclosure actions are the overwhelming proportion of underwater mortgage borrowers and unemployed homeowners. These borrowers could not save their homes through various loan modification and mediation programs offered because of their substantial negative equities and their lack of income.

About one-fourth of borrowers who purchased single-family houses with loans are underwater, many of which are facing defaults and foreclosures.

Additionally, the nationwide unemployment rate in October has hit10.2 percent, the highest level reached in 26.5 years. Without jobs, homeowners are left without any facility to save their homes from foreclosure lists.

In addition to online foreclosure listings, look for listings that are professional. That is, look for listings that are updated very frequently. The foreclosure market changes very often and you will only get value from a foreclosure listing service if the properties are updated frequently. It is also useful if you can verify that a listing service offers accurate listings. Listing services complied by real estate professionals are often preferable just for this reason. Look for a foreclosure property list that has good customer service so that you can always get help if you need it, as well. All these signs of professionalism will ensure that your foreclosed property list is accurate and reliable for you.

In addition to these attributes, you will also want to find a bank foreclosure list with plenty of properties. The more comprehensive a list, the more likely you are to find a property that appeals to you. Look for a list that has plenty of currently available properties for your area. Especially look for a bank foreclosure list that offers many types of distressed properties, so that you can get a good sense of the overall foreclosure market for your area.

Going around the Heartside District in Grand Rapids at night, one could see homeless people wander at highway underpasses or missions, roaming the streets and foraging for free meals. Some of them are mentally ill, derelict and drug addled. But a closer inspection revealed that many of them are families who have been evicted and lost their homes to bank foreclosure listings.

Many of them have tried to differentiate themselves from other homeless people by creating a shantytown in an unused factory. According to industry experts, almost 50 percent of these people seeking help are homeless for the first time. And many of them have jobs, some with two or three.

Industry experts described these homeless people as similar to a deer caught unaware in headlights. They said that many of these people are victims of mitigating circumstances and do not know how to deal with their current predicament.

In West Michigan’s five counties, the number of homeless people hit 13,332 last year. According to industry experts, the numbers are equivalent to the whole city of Grandville. Data showed that 50 percent of people in Kent County experienced homelessness while Kalamazoo County has a third of its population without homes. The rest of the homeless lives in the counties of Allegen, Muskegon and Ottawa.

And the number of homeless people in Michigan is increasing. The total number of homeless people in 2008 was up 11 percent compared with the previous year. This includes a 50 percent increase in the counties along the Lakeshore.

According to the Michigan State Homeless Management Information System, the data does not include thousands of homeless who were not identified annually because they opted not to seek help, and instead chose to move in with relatives or friends.

Industry experts believed that the total number of homeless people will continue to increase, with the possibility of bottoming out after 2010. Last year, Michigan ranked fifth nationwide in homelessness rates, with 86,000 people without homes.

Industry experts are expecting that the expiring unemployment benefits would bring in new a wave of homeless people who have lost their homes to bank foreclosure listings.

Industry experts said that the real estate market in the county is awash with foreclosed rental properties at discounted prices. A lucky investor could get a three-unit property with European cabinetry and glass mosaic tile for only $312,000.

They said that a large inventory of foreclosed homes in the county is enticing many investors to shop the market. According to data, nearly 55 properties are going into foreclosure every week and based on the current trend, the weekly foreclosure rate is expected to rise.

Already, about 1,200 homeowners in Lane County are 2 months to 3 months delayed on their mortgage payments. However, industry experts noted that the rate of foreclosed houses far surpassed the number of units sold year-to-date. And a growing number of foreclosure properties forced banks to dispose of them at whatever price they could get.

The declining home prices are enticing many investors but only a few are really taking a plunge into the foreclosure market. This is because prospective buyers are waiting for home prices to drop further, according to industry experts. They added that the interest is there but buyers want to make sure that they are getting good bargains.

Industry experts said that the large number of foreclosure houses on the market is giving buyers the confidence to hold off buying and wait for better deals to come.

Meanwhile, industry experts pointed out that the foreclosure crisis is expected to rise to record levels in the coming months. This could be another reason for buyers to postpone their purchases because they know that more choices are coming on the market and at even lower prices.

The increasing foreclosure trend in Lane County reflected what is happening statewide. In the first six months of this year, Oregon posted a total of 19,053 foreclosure houses, earning the state the 11th spot in the national foreclosure state ranking. From May 2008 to June 2009, foreclosures amounted to 337,211 resulting to a drop in home price of about $26,000 to average nearly $184,955.