Foreclosures up 50 percent in Britain

LONDON, May 16 (UPI) -- Nearly 13,000 British homeowners were evicted by foreclosure in the first quarter of 2009, the Council of Mortgage Lenders said Friday.

There were 12,800 repossessions in the three-month period, up 50 percent from the first quarter of 2008, the council said. There were 10,400 in the last quarter of 2008 and 8,500 in the first quarter of that year.

The council had predicted that there would be 75,000 evictions this year, but officials revised the estimate downwards to about 40,000.

"It is clear that mortgage arrears continued to increase," said Michael Coogan, the director general. "So did repossessions, but not as much as our 75,000 forecast figure for the year would suggest. So our forecast now looks pessimistic and we expect to revise it over the next month or so."

The council said that there were 182,600 mortgage holders who were behind by more than 2.5 percent of their balances in the fourth quarter of 2008, ad 205,300 in the first quarter of 2009. That was a 62 percent increase from the first quarter of 2008.