According to RealtyTrac, Banks foreclosed on a record 1.05 Million homes in 2010.  The previous record was 918,000 homes in 2009.  This despite various temporary mortoriums on foreclosure sales.

The pipeline is filling up as the sponsors of Mortgage Backed Security Trusts race to mitigate investor lawsuits by foreclosing as many homes as possible before they are potentially forced to buy back bad loans by the investors that funded the mortgage bubble.  The sponsors, often the servicers of the loans, include the friendly neighborhood mega banks like JPMORGAN CHASE, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citibank, GMAC.  

Consider this:  The total number of foreclosure filings exceeded 2.9 Million homes, most of which were properties newly entering into the foreclosure process.  December 2010 alone:  257,000 new filings and nearly 70,000 homes sold.  An estimated 250,000 sales were delayed due to mortoriums, so you can expect the 2011 numbers to be even higher.

More than half of all foreclosure activity occurs in five states:  California, Florida, Arizona, Illinois and Michigan.  Arizona and Nevada have the highest per capita foreclosure rate:  One in every 11 homes in Nevada received at least one foreclosure related filing.

On the frontlines:  Opposing counsel representing mortgage companies report increased caseloads as Foreclosure defense attorneys get more aggressive filing more lawsuits with legitimate legal theories that can survive Demurrers and Motions to Dismiss.  This office is happy to report that it was able to beat back an attempt by CHASE to dismiss a federal case last week.  The case, which is based on alleged Unfair, Unlawful and Fraudulant Business practices by Chase, is set for trial in October and highlights the use of phony documents executed by Robo signers employed by Chase to facilitate Relief from the Automatic Stay in a bankruptcy case.