High End Homes Likely To See More Foreclosures

Washington, DC, April 9, 2010--Houses with loans of $5 million or more will likely see a sharp rise in foreclosures this year, according to a RealtyTrac study for The Wall Street Journal.

In February alone, 352 homes nationwide in this category were scheduled for foreclosure auction, the Journal reported. That is the largest monthly number of these  notices of sale since the financial crisis began. By comparison, in all of 2009, there were 1,312 such notices.

Economists say the super-wealthy are among the last to lose their homes in a mortgage crisis because they usually have high savings, better access to credit and other means for staving off foreclosure. But many of them work in financial services and other industries hit especially hard by the crisis, and have seen their wealth shrink in the market crash.

The Journal said thatg big borrowers are more likely to default than ordinary people, according to data from First American CoreLogic.