The number of foreclosure homes increased by more than five percent during the third quarter of 2009 when compared to the previous quarter.  The increase occurred despite the presence of the Making Home Affordable program of the federal government that attempts to help borrowers undergoing financial hardships to get a loan modification to reduce their monthly payments.  Apparently, the government program was overpowered by the large increase in the number of people without jobs.

Approximately 48,000 homes were added to the number of foreclosure homes listed as of June 2009, thereby pushing up the number of foreclosed properties to 938,000 during the third quarter of 2009.  At this rate, the number of foreclosure filings is expected to reach approximately 3.5 million for the whole year of 2009, which is much higher than the 2.3 million filings in 2008.

Many economists have been declaring that the recession has ended but the foreclosure rate is still on the rise because the unemployment rate has reached an unprecedented level of 9.8 percent during the past 26 years.  Moreover, experts have predicted that the unemployment rate will keep on rising until it will attain its highest level in the middle of 2010.  In their own way, mortgage lenders have been helping by allowing the borrowers to postpone their payments by three to six months while they are trying to find work.  However, with the record unemployment rate, it is very difficult for those who have lost their jobs to find work.

The Obama Administration had recently claimed that its program had reached a milestone when more than half a million homeowners had their loans modified and monthly payments reduced.  Unfortunately, the number of borrowers getting into default still surpassed the number of homeowners who were being given loan modifications.

Mortgage lenders have been doing their share in minimizing the effects of the housing crisis by reducing the rate at which they are filing  foreclosures.  They have been attempting to assess whether homeowners would be eligible for the Making Home Affordable program of the government.  However, experts predict that a substantial number of those borrowers would not qualify and they forecast a new set of forecloser homes coming into the market in 2010.  Unfortunately, this will continue to bring down home prices.  It has been observed that the financial problems being experienced by some of the borrowers are so massive that banks and lenders are finding it impossible to structure a loan modification plan that would fit their current income capacity. {For more foreclosure news stop by http://www.bestforeclosurenews.com}