Government Says Foreclosures To Stay High

Washington, DC, Dec. 22, 2011 -- Foreclosures in the initial stages rose in the third quarter and are expected to remain elevated for the “foreseeable future,” the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said in a report.

New foreclosures increased by 21.1% during the third quarter, the government said

There were 347,726 newly initiated foreclosures in the quarter. About 1.33 million foreclosures were in process at the end of the quarter and 172,785 homes were repossessed.

“With this continued high level of seriously delinquent mortgages out there we will continue to see a high level of new foreclosure starts and at some point in the relatively near future we can expect to see the number of competed foreclosure sales…starting to pick up and increase,” Bruce Krueger, lead mortgage expert at the OCC, said on a conference call with reporters.