Banks Seized Over One Million Homes In A Year For First Time Ever In 2010:

Banks Seizes millions of homes

According to Irvine, California-based real estate data firm RealtyTrac; there were more than one million foreclosures in 2010, the first time that banks have seized that many homes in one year.

After 69,847 properties were seized in December, the total number of foreclosures for 2010 rose to 1.05 million, up from 918,000 in 2009, the previous record holder for one year.

Since the start of the current economic recession more than two years ago, the total numbers of foreclosure filings—which account for all default notices, auctions and actual repossessions—have grown to figures never seen before in the housing market. December saw 257,747 filings, bringing that total to 2.9 million, also a record high.

The country’s highest foreclosure rates were posted by Nevada, Arizona and Florida, just as they did the previous year. Nevada’s rate exceeded four times the national average—with at least one in every eleven housing units receiving at least one foreclosure filing during the year.

There were five states alone that accounted for more than half of all the foreclosure activity—Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois and Michigan.

As questions regarding foreclosure processing arose towards the end of the year, there was a slowdown in the number of filings going through; otherwise, analysts say that number would have easily exceeded 3 million.

According to James J. Saccacio, RealtyTrac’s chief executive officer, those filings that were put off at the end of 2010 will likely restart at the beginning of 2011 and begin the march to another high total.