Recession Watch

Foreclosures Jump to Highest in 5 Years

On pace for over a million in 2010.

In the first three months of this year, 900,000 households—or one in every 138 homes—received a foreclosure-related notice, according to a new report by RealtyTrac Inc. The overall statistics are just as dismal. The Associated Press reports that foreclosures in the first three months of the year increased by 35 percent compared to 2009, while the number of homes threatened by foreclosure grew 16 percent in the same period. "We're right now on pace to see more than 1 million bank repossessions this year," said a RealtyTrac executive. The uptick in foreclosures suggests that banks are starting to plod through their rolls of overdue home loans.