Meanwhile, foreclosure activity decreased in nine of the 10 metro area’s with the highest foreclosure rates, RealtyTrac said in a new report released today.

Filing trends through mid-year puts the U.S. on a pace to exceed 3 million properties hit by foreclosure filings in 2010, which would set a new high, RealtyTrac reported earlier this month.

Four states — Florida, California, Nevada and Arizona — represented all top 20 metro foreclosure rates, today’s report said.

Florida was No. 1, with nine of the top 20 metro foreclosure rates, followed by California with eight, Nevada with two and Arizona with one.

“While we’re seeing early signs that foreclosure activity may have peaked in some of the hardest-hit markets, foreclosures continued to rise…” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “The fragile stability achieved in many local housing markets hinges on improvements in the underlying economy, specifically job growth.”

If unemployment remains high and foreclosure prevention efforts by the Obama Administration “only delay the inevitable,” Saccacio said there will be higher foreclosure activity and “a corresponding weakness in home prices in many metro areas.”

Las Vegas is still the metro area with the highest foreclosure rate. In the first six months of 2010, 6.60 percent of housing units in Las Vegas received a foreclosure filing — more than five times the national average.

But Las Vegas may have peaked. A total of 53,525 properties received a foreclosure filing through June, a decrease of nearly 15 percent from the previous six months and a decrease of nearly 9 percent from the first half of 2009.   

While Vegas claimed the highest foreclosure rate, South Florida held the top spot in the number of foreclosure filings.

A total of 94,466 properties in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area received a foreclosure filing during the six-month period, a decrease of 8 percent from the previous six months, but up nearly 11 percent from the first six months of 2009.

See RealtyTrac’s ranking of the top 20 metro foreclosure rates. 

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The Volt’s price does not include up to $7,500 in federal tax credits for the four-door sedan which has a range of about 340 miles on a full charge and a back-up gasoline engine. The battery carries an eight-year/100,000-mile warranty.

Chevrolet today also announced plans to offer a lease program on the Volt with a monthly payment as low as $350 for 36 months, in addition to $2,500 due at lease signing.

The lease deal would make the Volt more competitive with gasoline-powered vehicles in the same sedan class.

But General Motors also will have competition from Nissan’s Leaf, an electric vehicle to also make showrooms this year, and which will also qualify for the same $7,500 tax credit. The Leaf will sell for $32,780, but that does not including other state and local incentives which could bring its price down to just above $20,000.

Nissan will also offer a lease deal with similar terms to that announced today for the Volt.

But GM is touting the Volt’s versatility.

The Leaf is an all-electric vehicle with a range of 70 to 120 miles, but that depends on driving conditions, with zero emissions.

The Volt is powered by an electric motor that is also dependent on a lithium-ion battery. But the Volt also has a 1.4-liter four-cylinder gasoline engine. When the car runs out of electricity, the gas engine kicks in and works to generate electricity to the motor.

“The Chevrolet Volt is the only electric vehicle that can operate under a range of weather climates and driving conditions with little concern of being stranded by a depleted battery,” General Motors said in a statement.

The downside for the Volt is that it burns gasoline after the 40-mile range of the electric engine, possibly causing defections to Nissan by emission-free purists.

“The Chevrolet Volt will be the best vehicle in its class…because it’s in a class by itself,” said Joel Ewanick, vice president of U.S. marketing for General Motors, who made the Volt price announcement at the Plug-In 2010 conference. “No other automaker offers an electrically driven vehicle that can be your everyday driver, to take you wherever, whenever. The Volt will be packed with premium content and innovation, standard.”

That was the key recommendation from Pew Health Group’s “Safe Credit Cards Project,” which recently conducted a study on the impact of the credit card reform laws that mostly took effect Feb. 22 of this year.

The Pew study found that at least 94 percent of bank cards and 46 percent of credit union cards carry provisions stating that interest rates can go up as a penalty for late payments or other violations. 

And, most significantly, nearly half these warnings failed to inform the consumer of the actual penalty interest rate or how high it could climb, the report said. 

“Although we applaud changes by the card industry to create a fairer and more transparent marketplace, our research shows that some challenges remain,” said Nick Bourke, director of Pew’s Safe Credit Cards Project and report co-author. “For the first time, we have seen credit card disclosures warning consumers that interest rates could go up as a penalty for certain actions, but not stating how high those rates could go.”

The Pew report found s that surcharge fees for cash advances rose sharply between July 2009 and March 2010. Bank cash advance and balance transfer fees increased on average by one-third during this period, from 3 percent of each transaction to 4 percent.  Credit union cash advance fees went up by one quarter, from 2 percent to 2.5 percent. 

The consumer advocacy organization, Pew Charitable Trusts, oversees the project. Its most recent analysis of credit card trends also found several positives, including: 

• Practices including “hair trigger” penalty rate increases, unfair payment allocation, and over-the-limit fees – without prior consent – are a thing of the past. 
• Less than 25 percent of all cards examined had an over-the-limit fee, which is down from more than 80 percent of cards in July 2009. 
• Mandatory arbitration clauses, which can limit a consumer’s right to settle disputes in court, are now found in 10 percent of cards compared to 68 percent in July 2009.
• There was minimal change in the number of cards that include an annual fee (down 1 percentage point from July 2009 to March 2010).

The study, Two Steps Forward: After the Credit CARD Act, Cards Are Safer and More Transparent—But Challenges Remain, is the latest in a series of reports that has examined all credit cards trends offered online by the nation’s 12 largest banks and 12 largest credit unions.

The National Association of Realtors also reports that total housing inventory at the end of June rose 2.5 percent to 3.99 million existing homes available for sale – an 8.9-month supply at the current sales pace, up from an 8.3-month supply in May.

“The supply of homes on the market is higher than we’d like to see. But home prices are still holding their ground because prices had already overcorrected in many local markets,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist.

Raw unsold inventory remains 12.7 percent below the record of 4.58 million in July 2008.

Home sales, both new and existing, have slumped since the expiration of homebuyer tax credits at the end of April.

“Only when jobs are created at a sufficient pace will home sales return to sustainable healthy levels,” Yun said.

The national median existing-home price was $183,700 in June, which is 1.0 percent higher than a year ago. That includes all types of homes: single-family, condos, townhomes and condos.

Distressed homes were at 32 percent of sales last month, compared with 31 percent in May. It was also 31 percent in June 2009.

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The FTC’s amended Free Credit Reports Rule took effect April 2 and requires disclosing the official website where consumers are entitled to one free credit report from each of the three credit bureaus: AnnualCreditReport.com.

The disclosures must also include a link to the official website, and one to FTC.gov, across the top of each web page that mentions “free credit reports.”

The FTC’s tougher rule seeks to end misleading ads that say they offer free credit reports – when the offer is actually tied to credit monitoring services at a monthly cost.

Violators are subject to legal action that can result in penalties of up to $3,500 per violation, the FTC said.

See the list of websites that have received FTC warning letters.

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The FHA is seeking public comments on several policy changes aimed at bolstering its depleted capital reserves, while keeping intact its mission of facilitating home ownership in underserved communities.

The new policies, first announced in January, will also require new borrowers with credit scores of less than a 580 to make a cash investment of at least 10 percent.

The rule that makes borrowers with credit scores of less than 500 ineligible will likely have minimal impact. Less than 1 percent of borrowers fall in that category. Most FHA-backed loans go to borrowers with minimum credit scores in the mid-600s.

But the rule change is just one of many to reduce risk in a still very fragile mortgage financing industry.

“These are the latest in a series of changes to allow the FHA to manage its risk better while continuing to support the nation’s housing recovery,” said FHA Commissioner David Stevens. “By protecting FHA’s capital reserves, we can continue providing affordable, responsible mortgage products and will remain the nation’s largest source of home purchase financing for underserved communities.”

The FHA does not lend to home buyers, but provides mortgage insurance for those who meet its down payment requirement and other standards. In the aftermath of the housing market bust, the agency’s business has soared as private mortgage lenders have further tightened credit.

The FHA currently insures about 30 percent of home purchase mortgages, up from about 3 percent a few years ago.

However, FHA reserves to cover losses have plummeted to about 0.5 percent of insured loans the FHA has in force — well under the 2 percent coverage ratio required by Congress.

The FHA also will reduce allowable seller concessions from six to three percent.

“Allowing sellers to contribute up to six percent of the home’s sales price to offset a buyer’s costs exposes the FHA to excess risk by potentially driving up the cost of the home beyond its appraised value,” the FHA said in a statement this week.

Reducing seller concessions to three percent will bring FHA in line with industry standards.

Filing trends through mid-year puts the U.S. on a pace to exceed 3 million properties hit by foreclosure filings in 2010, which would set a new high. 

Foreclosure notices set a record in 2009 with a total of 2,824,674 U.S. properties affected, up 21 percent from 2008 – and up 120 percent from 2007, said RealtyTrac, a leading foreclosure research site.

The mid-year update shows that 1.28 percent of all U.S. housing units (one in 78) received at least one foreclosure filing through June.

Foreclosure filings were reported on 313,841 U.S. properties in June, a decrease of nearly 3 percent from the previous month, and a decline of nearly 7 percent from June 2009.

But June was the 16^th-straight month registering more than 300,000 properties receiving foreclosure filings.

Filings were reported on 895,521 U.S. properties during the second quarter, a decrease of nearly 4 percent from the previous quarter, and an increase of less than 1 percent from the second quarter of 2009.

RealtyTrac attributes the slight slowdown in the pace of foreclosures on short-sale and loan modification campaigns by lenders – both private efforts and those falling under the government’s Home Affordable Modification Program, HAMP.

“The second quarter was a tale of two trends,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “The pace of properties entering foreclosure slowed as lenders pre-empted or delayed foreclosure proceedings on delinquent properties with more aggressive short sale and loan modification initiatives. Meanwhile the pace of properties completing the foreclosure process through bank repossession quickened as lenders cleared out a backlog of distressed inventory delayed by foreclosure prevention efforts in 2009.

See RealtyTrac’s full report.

More Americans say they have been focused on paying down debt (46 percent) than saving (29 percent) this year, American Express found.

And 57 percent of consumers with debt have been moving forward with a specific plan to reduce or stabilize their debt.

July’s American Express “Spending & Saving Tracker” surveyed consumers about their spending and saving trends and intentions midway through 2010, compared to the beginning of the year. Within the survey’s 2,004 U.S. adults, there were two subgroups – the affluent and young professionals.

“An impressive number of consumers say they have decreased their debt over the last six months,” AmEx said.

Here’s the breakdown of those reducing their debt:

• The majority of affluents (52 percent)
• Almost half (46 percent) of young professionals
• More than a third (38 percent) of the general population

Consumers also expressed some intentions of spending money. For example, more than one-quarter (26 percent) of the general population said “that the summer weather specifically encourages more spontaneous spending.”

“It’s encouraging to see that consumers are continuing to balance their spending intentions while remaining committed to maintaining manageable debt levels,” said Pamela Codispoti, American Express senior vice president and general manager, Consumer Card Products.

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The reduced rates apply to its programs: Wells Fargo Collegiate Loan and Wells Fargo Student Loan for Parents. The programs do not have application, origination, or repayment fees. Borrowers can defer payments until graduation or make in school payments

The lender said its private student loan customers can reduce their interest rate during repayment by 0.25 percent if they set up automatic payments.

Wells Fargo Collegiate Loan customers can lower their rates by an additional 0.50 percent through the Wells Fargo Student Graduation Benefit Program.

If students qualify for both programs and the lowest pricing tier, their overall interest rate could be as low as 2.75 percent – based on today’s Prime Rate index of 3.25 percent, Wells Fargo said.

Published tuition and fees at public four year colleges and university rose at an average annual rate of 4.9 percent per year beyond general inflation from 1999-2000 to 2009-2010, more rapidly than the previous two decades, according to CollegeBoard.com.

“Wells Fargo offers private student loans to qualified customers who need to fill the gap between the amount of federal financing for which they qualify and the overall cost of their education,” said Kirk Bare, head of Wells Fargo Education Financial Services. “We strongly advise students and families who borrow private student loans to exhaust all grants, scholarships, and federal loan eligibility first.”

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The Federal Reserve’s May update also marked the 20^th consecutive month of a decline in credit card balances, down 10.5 percent, or $7.4 billion, for a total of $830.8 billion.

Non-revolving credit – covering auto, truck and personal loans, decreased 1.4 percent – or $1.8 billion, for a total of $1.584 trillion.

Overall credit fell 4.5 percent, or $9.1 billion, to $2.415 trillion in May. The Fed’s report does not cover real estate-secured loans such as mortgages and home equity loans.

Last month, the Fed reported a slight increase in both revolving and non-revolving credit – enough to spur some optimism that consumer spending might rebound and help revive a faltering recovery from the deepest recession in decades.

April’s overall consumer credit was revised to reflect a 7.3 decrease.

The slide in borrowing is reflected in consumer spending sluggishness. Spending by Americans increased 0.2 percent in May after a flat April, the Commerce Department reported recently. While slightly above expectations of 0.1 percent, personal savings reached the highest level in eight months. 

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