Ten states – Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio and Texas – accounted for over 70% of all US foreclosures, the report said.  This is a far cry from the heady days of 2005, just before the housing crisis began, when banks were seizing just over 100,000 homes per year.  The good news is that the number of foreclosures fell in the last month as activity continued to slow down due to faulty paperwork, a survey said last week.

Foreclosure numbers fell to a three-year low, with just 69,532 homes seized by banks in April, which is down 8.6% on the previous month and a third less than the same time last year, according to the RealtyTrac data firm.

Some basic Foreclosure statistics:

• 219,258 foreclosure filings –  seventh straight month they have declined
• 285,000 homes have been seized by banks this year
• 850,000 Possible tracking of US foreclosures.

There were over a million foreclosures in 2010, and this figure was actually expected to increase in 2011 until foreclosures were stalled by investigations which began at the end of last year.  State attorneys and industry regulators are negotiating with some of the country’s biggest lenders, including JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo. These banks, along with dozens of other mortgage firms are accused of initiating foreclosures on thousands of homes despite not having the correct paperwork to do so.

If you are in trouble with your house, contact your bank today to find a work out solution.

Too many consumers are confused about credit scores. Most did not know who makes credit scores available, what is a strong score, nor the financial cost of a poor score.

Your credit score is a numerical rendition of your creditworthiness. It indicates how well or how poorly you’ll repay a debt. The higher the number, the more likely you’ll repay on time. Credit scores are important, influencing whether consumers can purchase a wide range of important services and at what price, including mortgages.

Basic information to know about your credit score:

• Mortgage lenders and credit card issuers use these scores to determine whether to extend credit and/or at what price.  Many non-financial services — such as cell phone companies and landlords — use credit scores to determine whether to offer a service and/or at what price.

• The three main credit bureaus — Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion — collect information on which credit scores are most frequently based.  The survey also advises, an individual has many different credit scores, which are either generic or lender-based. Generic credit scores are available from many sources — not just FICO and the three credit bureaus but also many other websites.

• Three key ways to raise a credit score or maintain a high score are making all loan payments on time, for each credit card keeping balances under 25 percent of the card’s credit limit, and avoiding opening several credit card accounts at the same time  

• A large majority of consumers correctly understand the following about scores: Missed payments, high credit card balances and many applications for new accounts at one time are factors used to calculate credit scores.  It’s a lot more difficult to raise your score than it is to lower it. Making a couple credit card or mortgage payments late may take a year of on-time payments to restore one’s old scores.

Like the mortgage industry, much needed disclosures are coming for credit scores.  You are entitled to one free credit report a year from each of the credit reporting bureaus — Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion — from the only federally-sanctioned web site for free reports AnnualCreditReport.com.