Mortgage Foreclosures Up 56% From Last Year

Mortgage foreclosures in America jumped to a record in the first half as rising interest rates and falling home prices battered homeowners. Almost 926,000 foreclosure notices were filed, 56% more than a year earlier and the most since Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac started tracking the data in 2005. Foreclosures were the highest last month in California and Florida, where some home prices have fallen as much as 25%, and in Ohio and Michigan, where the automotive industry fired more than 50,000 people in the past 10 years.

The jump in 30-year mortgage rates by more than a half a percentage point since May is putting a crimp on borrowers with the best credit just as a crackdown in subprime lending standards limits the pool of qualified buyers. Foreclosures also are increasing as the supply of unsold homes hit a record 4.43 million in May, according to the National Association of Realtors.