Report Highlights Rural Foreclosures

A recently-released research note from the Housing Assistance Council - Foreclosure in Rural America: An Update - analyzes foreclosure data made available by HUD as part of the NSP-3 program.  The report finds that between June 2009 and July 2010, more than 12 percent of all foreclosures occurred in rural areas. 

On a per unit basis, the incidence of foreclosure is lower in rural areas than in urban areas.  However, the report suggests that the true rate of housing instability is underestimated because those who can no longer afford payments on their manufactured homes often have consumer loans - rather than home mortgages - and are thus excluded from most data sources used to conduct foreclosure analyses.