With the state on track to equal or exceed last year's number of home foreclosures, the Wisconsin Realtors' Association has a website to help homeowners through the process. "We've got sections of the site that give you a step-by-step analysis of what you should be doing, who you should be talking to, the things you should be thinking about, what you should be doing to prepare yourself, regardless of where you might be in that process," says the association's Joe Murray.
"For the year end 2008, Wisconsin had about 20,000 foreclosures statewide," says Murray. That was only slightly more than the number of foreclosures the previous year, and just slightly more than one percent of the nationwide total. Still, Murray says it's a trend that's likely to continue. "Wisconsin like the rest of the country is seeing an increase in these, so I don't think we've seen the bottom yet."
Murray says homeowners facing foreclosure, or even considering it, need to be proactive and ask plenty of questions. "If you are headed that way because you've lost your job, for example, you should immediately contact your lender and see if you can work something out," he says. "There are options today that might have been a little less available even a couple of years ago."
