Foreclosure future grim for Utahns

"Stronger standards from federal policymakers could have helped avert this crisis," Hearne said. "Future legislation must consider ways to strengthen standards to prevent more troubling loans from being made."

Fourteen states, including Utah, have created statewide foreclosure task forces to bring government, lenders, consumer advocates and experts together to address the crisis.

The Pew researchers analyzed two principal data sets: the Mortgage Bankers Association 4th Quarter National Delinquency Survey, and the Center for Responsible Lending's foreclosure projections and subprime spillover data.

The Mortgage Bankers Association quarterly data are based on survey sampling techniques and offer a point in time picture of loans in various stages of delinquency or in the foreclosure process, the report said. The MBA foreclosure estimates refer to all loans in the foreclosure process, as well as loans that are seriously delinquent, or more than 90 days past due.

The Center for Responsible Lending's estimates evaluate the total number of subprime loans disbursed during 2005 and 2006 and give the number of loans the analysts expect will be foreclosed upon. This estimate includes foreclosures that will occur in 2008, as well as subsequent years.

Wood said resets of variable-rate subprime loans have contributed to the increase in foreclosures, both nationally and in Utah.

"We will probably go well above the national average," he said, "but 4 percent seems high."

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