RealtyTrac is reporting that last month over 74,000 homes were repossessed, compared to 67,000 in January. Since the market crisis began in August 2007, over 1.2 million homes have been foreclosed upon. The amount of foreclosure filings per month had fallen 10% in January, but quickly rose by 6% in February, and February´s figure for this year is still almost 30% higher then that of Feb. 2008.

What is surprising is that the new figures were not expected to be so high as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had called a halt on many foreclosures a few months ago. They had hoped to be able to save some of those homes, by calling the halt, to be able to work out some kind of solution with those home owners and lenders. The problem is that too many had experienced extreme drops in their home values; it made them too underwater to be able to come up with rational mortgage payments.

Of course, with increased foreclosures, there is also increased unemployment or vice versa. For example, when South Carolina´s foreclosure filings went up 254%, their unemployment also rose, reaching 10.4% in Jan. South Carolina now holds the second highest amount of unemployment, second to Michigan. The worst state for foreclosures is Nevada; one out of every 70 households has had to file for foreclosure. Last month, they had over 2,800 bank repossessions.