In the first three months of 2007, nearly eighty thousand homes were listed as foreclosures in the United States. These homes had been purchased with the help of Fannie Mae, HUD, the Veteran's Administration, and private bank loans.

For everyone losing a home to foreclosure, there is someone waiting to buy that home at a discount and profit from its resale. That is an accepted part of real estate speculation. But what is not an acceptable part of real estate dealing in the US is the increase in the number of predatory lenders who loan home buying funds to people knowing that those people will not be able to make their loan payments.

By taking advantage of people who are poor credit risks these lenders repossess and sell the same properties again and again. How do they do it?

They scour the available lists of foreclosures homes and buy them at a significant discount to market. They then approach high risk borrowers who cannot find legitimate lenders to give them mortgages, and through "creative" financing, manage to get them enough money for down payments. When, as they expected, the buyers fall behind on the mortgage payments, the lenders turn the properties into foreclosures homes again, and repeat the cycle.

Finding an Updated Foreclosures Homes List There are many sources for foreclosures homes lists, although you may have to pay a small fee to access them. But many of those lists are out of date, sometimes containing information which is several months old. You can save yourself money and grief by getting a list of foreclosures from a government agency; they are free and will have recent information on foreclosures homes for sale.

You may have to pay a long-distance charge to contact a government agency for a list of foreclosure homes, but you can have confidence that you'll be getting accurate information. Two places to consider are the Veteran's Administration and HUD. They even categorize their foreclosures homes listings by state.

All foreclosures homes tell the story of another person's bad luck. But if you can afford to take on monthly house payments, looking into foreclosures homes may let you buy your next home for as much as twenty-five percent of a discount to its actual value. You can use those savings to make a larger down payment, and take a smaller mortgage!