Realtytrac, the group that tracks national foreclosure statistics, reports that the rate of increase in foreclosures leveled off last month; though it was the highest total number of home loan defaults since they began counting (342,038), it was only a 1 percent increase over the previous months total (and a 32 percent increase over the previous April's total). As with many of the economic indicators we're following, this shows primarily bad news: foreclosures are murder on housing prices and the various mortgage-based assets at the heart of the financial crisis. The fact that the foreclosure rate is slowing is good, but with unemployment continuing to rise, we have to hope that the administration's policies will be effective in dropping foreclosures to a reasonable level. It's unclear how realistic that hope is without cramdown (here's, incidentally, the whip smart Elizabeth Warren telling you a little something about that). After that bad news, here's some good news: Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley just received a $60 million settlement from Goldman Sachs to reduce the principle on various predatory mortgage loans made in her state. She had previously been awarded an injunction to prevent further foreclosures from another predatory mortgage lender, Fremont Investment & Loan, which was until yesterday considered the most successful action taken by a state attorney general to attack the root of the housing crisis. State AGs have been some of the few heroes in the government response to the mortgage crisis (I've heard good thing about Ohio's Richard Cordray as well) despite the fact that many are hamstrung by the lack of anti-predatory lending law in their states or federal rules that preempt state actions on some of these issues. But Coakley, at least, has been holding people accountable, and anyone who cares for justice should be happy for that. -- Tim Fernholz Photo courtesy flickr user respres
