Just as expected, the lifting of foreclosure moratoriums last March resulted to a surge in the number of house repossession across the United States the following month. According to data released by RealtyTrac, foreclosure activity in the country last month rose by 32 percent compared with the same period the previous year.

According to RealtyTrac, which tracks the foreclosure market since January 2005, one per 374 homeowners with mortgages received notices of default in April, representing a total of 342,038 properties.

The flood of distressed foreclosure properties in the market has severely affected home prices and hinders the recovery of the housing market which is deemed important to the country’s economic rehabilitation.

Majority of foreclosure filings in April were still in early stages and included notice of default and auctions. Actual bank foreclosure dropped its monthly and annual rates, the lowest since March 2008.

According to James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac, the decline in bank owned foreclosures indicated that lenders and loan servicers are starting foreclosure proceedings on troubled loans that were delayed due to legislative and industry moratoriums.

Banks and government-sponsored home funding companies Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. and Federal National Mortgage Corp. lifted the moratoriums before the housing recovery program of President Barack Obama could take off.

Saccacio predicted that bank foreclosure properties will increase as troubled loans progress to complete foreclosure.

In its report, RealtyTrac noted that the number of house repossesion increased not more than 1 percent in April from the previous month. The firm added that the moratorium created temporary delays in foreclosure as the typical trend would have been a decrease in April’s foreclosure rate following an increase in March.

When the foreclosure crisis started, subprime lending was blamed for its rapid spread in the country. Now, unemployment is the major factor being blamed for driving the foreclosure rate to a new high. The massive layoffs have left many borrowers in huge debts and loan delinquency despite the availability of federal housing relief programs.

On the other hand, home affordability is still the prevailing trend in the real estate market, with foreclosure properties taking over 50 percent of home sales revenue. Based on indexes of Standard and Poor’s Case-Shiller, property prices declined over 30 percent from the market’s peak in 2006, influenced by the increase in house repossesion activity.