Foreclosures Shoot Up 7%

Banks let loose a flurry of foreclosures in October, filing foreclosure actions on 230,678 homes in total—a 7% jump from September, according to new figures from RealtyTrac. First notices of default were sent out on 77,733 houses, a 10% jump from the month before. The numbers “show strong signs that foreclosure activity is coming out of the rain delay we've been in for the past year” following the robo-signing scandal, RealtyTrac’s CEO explained, according to the LA Times.

That’s bad news for anyone trying to sell a house, because the glut of foreclosed homes will likely drag prices down further. California was especially hard-hit, with four of its inland metro areas taking the top four spots in the most-foreclosed-upon list. “They got vastly overbuilt during the housing boom,” an analyst explained. Still, the numbers represent a 31% decrease from last October, when the robo-signing scandal was just coming to light. (More RealtyTrac stories.)