January 17, 2007 (LPAC)--A report on home foreclosures in California during December and the first third of January shows that the pace of foreclosures is accelerating. Foreclosures jumped 45% month-over-month in December, with some 32,948 households getting foreclosure notices, with 12,783 losing their homes to repossessions and auctions during the month, according to ForeclosureRadar.com. In January, a "gargantuan" 9,001 properties were sold at auction in just the first eight business days of January, the report said.

Housing construction starts fell 14% in December to an annual rate of 1 million homes, the lowest number since the 1991 recession, while for the entire year of 2007, starts fell 25%, the biggest year-over-year decline since the days of the Volcker Fed's "controlled disintegration" interest rates in 1980. However, since the builders sold less than 700,000 homes last year, they are still building considerably faster than they are selling, a process which will destroy the builders and send housing prices downward, triggering even more foreclosures.