For the first time in three months, the number of foreclosures in January was lower than in the previous month. Filings for foreclosures, which include bank repossessions, notices for auction sales, and mortgage default notices, were down more than 10% in January compared to December. The news came as a welcome surprise and showed that the monumental efforts being taken to reduce the number of foreclosures could be having a positive impact and helping people to stay in homes.

The news isn’t too much to celebrate-foreclosures for the month of January were still 18% higher than in January of 2008, and one in every 466 homes did receive a foreclosure notice during the month. The consensus opinion is that loan modification programs and moratoriums on foreclosures are making the process take longer but having little impact on the overall health of the housing market. Just today JP Morgan and Citigroup both announced that they will put a freeze on foreclosures between now and March 6^th, giving the Obama administration time to come up with a long term solution to help homeowners.

The worst states for foreclosures during January were Nevada, California, Arizona, Florida, and Oregon. Nevada had one foreclosure for every 76 homes in the state. Some states, such as Florida, could have been worse if not for statewide efforts to voluntarily freeze foreclosure action during the month of January. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac also extended their moratorium on foreclosures through the end of January, explaining at least some of the positive results.

Most experts agree that we are not out of the woods yet when it comes to foreclosures. Realtytrac has forecast a total of 3 million foreclosures for 2009. The question will be whether or not the efforts to temporarily limit foreclosures will be aided by Federal programs coming to the rescue of homeowners. The Obama administration has pledged $50 billion in funds to prevent foreclosures by arranging new monthly payment plans for homeowners. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner alluded to more financial help for homeowners from the treasury, although details there have been harder to come by.

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