March saw a substantial spike in the filings of new foreclosures.  Data from Foreclosure List Service saw that January and February had been around 400 new filings per month or less, but March jumped into the low 500s.

One reason we believe we’re seeing this increase is because now that the major banks have settled their claims with the Federal government and the states, they will move to deal with the “shadow inventory” of non-performing loans. We are seeing individual filings with $50,000 to $100,000 (or more) amounts in default – meaning payments haven’t been made for 2 – 3 years.

Here is the monthly chart.

Here is the quarterly chart.