Today's Los Angeles Daily News has a story about the rate of housing foreclosures in the San Fernando Valley. And the figure quoted is really quite horrifying. In August alone the foreclosure rate rose 400%. That's right. 400%. The number is mind blowing.  According to the Daily News, 289 homes were foreclosed on in August. In comparison to 58 that were foreclosed last August. The AP published an article this morning positing that a housing slump might produce a recession.

Daniel Blake, at the Economic Research Center at California State University, Northridge sees this trend happening as a result of the large numbers of adjustable rate mortgages that are adjusting to higher rates.

“It's climbing right now, and I don't see any reason for it to drop off that pace,” he said. “These mortgages are continuing to (reset at higher rates), and they will continue to (do so) for the next 12 to 19 months at a pretty steady pace.”

The article notes that there have been 552 foreclosures in the first two months of the third quarter. And expects that the third quarter will have more foreclosures than the second quarter, which closed with 632 foreclosures. And there's this from the AP article:

The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that construction of new homes fell by 2.6 percent in August to the slowest pace in 12 years as troubles. On Tuesday, the National Association of Home Builders reported that its index of builder confidence fell in September to equal the lowest level on record.

Things really are only going to get worse. Here's hoping that Congress takes a hard look at this before it's too late.