Appendix G—Completed Foreclosures

Fourth Quarter 2008

Foreclosures are completed when ownership of the properties is transferred to the servicers or investors and the debts are extinguished. The foreclosure process varies by state and can take from two to 15 months or more to complete. Many loans that start the foreclosure process never result in foreclosure of the properties.

The number of foreclosures completed in the fourth quarter declined by 29 percent from the third to the fourth quarter. The number of completed foreclosures fell from 126,280 in the third quarter to 89,634 in the fourth.

Subprime loans constituted more than 24 percent of all completed foreclosures in the fourth quarter, but only nine percent of all loans in the servicing portfolio. Prime loans constituted more than 39 percent of all completed foreclosures in the fourth quarter, but they 67 percent of all loans in the servicing portfolio.

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