New data from the company RealtyTrac show foreclosure activity on the rise in the New Orleans area: numbers for the first half of 2009 show an increase of more than 18 percent in New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner and up 63 percent in St. Tammany Parish.
One real estate expert thinks some people may have been falling behind on purpose. Latter & Blum president Arthur Sterbcow points out that in the spring President Obama asked lenders to lower payments for homeowners more than 60 days behind:
"That caused a lot of people who maybe were only 30 days late to now go, 'well, hell, I've already got some late payments, I may as well be late another month or two, and now maybe they'll cut ten to twenty thousand dollars off what I owe,'" Sterbcow said.
Latter & Blum president Arthur Sterbcow analyzes RealtyTrac's foreclosure data:
Sterbcow says the rate actual home foreclosures have remained steady over the last five years, and says the rate is far lower than it was during the oil bust.
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