Mortgage default notices jump

Default notices on US home loans notched their biggest monthly increase in four years in August, suggesting some of the backlog from documentation issues was easing, data showed on Thursday. First-time default notices were filed on 78,880 homes last month, marking a nine-month high, according to a report by RealtyTrac. Notices jumped 33 percent from July, the biggest increase since August 2007.
The rise in default filings did not necessarily suggest that a new foreclosure problem was on the horizon but that some of the glut of homes needing to be processed was being reduced, said Rick Sharga, senior vice president at RealtyTrac.