Foreclosures.com came out with its latest numbers today, a 63 percent rise in foreclosures for 2008, with a total of about 1 million throughout the year. The foreclosure process was begun on 2 million during 2008. Of those, 1.6 million were in the southern and western states as you can see by the chart above.

Alexis McGee, president of Foreclosures.com, believes the worst is behind the housing market. She’s says housing affordability is better than it’s been since 1994, when a mortgage on a median-price home equaled 18 percent of the median income. Dropping interest rates on mortgages have improved this even more. Plummenting housing construction and a growing US population ultimately mean an increased demand for housing. Unemployment, while rising sharply, is still below where it stood in the 1990-1991 recession and well below the highs of the early 1980s.

“Don’t expect another tidal wave of foreclosures this year, either, just because more adjustable rate mortgages are due to reset,” McGee says. “Current mortgage rates are at 30 year lows and dropping. Those who qualify will be able to refinance and enjoy lower monthly payments, not higher ones. Those that can’t will end up either selling their homes pre-foreclosure or losing them to foreclosure. But I am anticipating our market can absorb this inventory.”

M&A Advice for the Brave

Posted by: Emily Thornton on January 12

Consumer confidence is shattered. Credit has tightened. And companies are about to be hit with hundreds of billions of dollars of debt maturities scheduled to come by the end of 2009.

So it’s no wonder that most CEOs are feeling a little a gun shy about doing big deals. In 2008, companies announced only $2.9 trillion worth of mergers and acquisitions, a fraction of the $4.2 trillion announced the previous year, according to ThomsonReuters. And most bankers do not expect mergers to come roaring back any time soon.

Nevertheless, as for those CEOs that can put their nerves aside, the chances for snapping up a rival on the cheap have never been better. There are few buyers out there to bid up prices, leaving the field wide open for those who dare to attempt to snap up an asset for a cheap price or even take out their rivals.

In fact, Boon Sim, head of mergers and acquisitions at Credit Suisse, advises executives that they “should aggressively go out and look at companies that have in the past said no to them.” With the overall stress and nervousness about the economy, Sim argues, “shareholders are likely to be more responsive to an unsolicited offer.”

Plus the list of vulnerable players will likely get longer. Many companies are “suffering from a financial crisis, a business model crisis, or both,” says Paul Parker, head of global mergers and acquisitions at Barclays Capital.