US officials estimate that 2.5 million more people may face foreclosure in the next couple of years.

Hundreds of thousands of people in the US continue to lose their homes each month in an ongoing crisis that is wreaking chaos on communities, housing advocates say.
Millions are out of work and high mortgage interest rates are kicking in, and many families can’t keep up with their mortgage payments.
The US Department of Labor reported that a record number of people are out of work.
“People are so far behind,“ Stephanie Portea, director of ACORN in Florida, told Ipsnews.net.
ACORN housing experts in Florida work with hundreds of families each month who are facing foreclosure, to try and help them stay in their homes. It is one of many non-profits that are shouldering most of the burden of stemming the tide on a foreclosure-by-foreclosure basis.

Inflexible Banks
A recent White House report found that mortgage lenders are doing little to help people facing foreclosure, despite generous government incentives to do so.
The biggest reason foreclosures are still happening is that banks are not willing to seriously negotiate the loans they made, some of which have extremely high interest rates.
July was the worst month yet for the number of foreclosures, according to recent reports by the private sector. In July, 8.6 percent of homeowners were delinquent on their mortgages--an increase of 40 percent over July 2008, according to Lender Processing Services.
The number of homes that have gone completely into foreclosure increased 89.6 percent since July of last year.
RealtyTrac reported that 360,149 US properties were in foreclosure or delinquent on payments during July 2009. That means one in every 355 homes was issued a foreclosure notice in July, it said.
Florida, Arizona, California and Nevada are the states with the highest rate of foreclosures, and some communities are being hit especially hard.
In Fort Myers, Florida, one in every 64 homes was served a foreclosure notice in July. In Las Vegas, one in 47 homeowners received a foreclosure notice in July, and in Phoenix, Arizona, one in every 103 homeowners was served, according to RealtyTrac.

2.9m Lost Homes
About 29 states and some cities have scrambled to enact laws to slow foreclosures, like requiring that a judge decide if a foreclosure is warranted.
Massachusetts is one state that does not have such a law and the results are disastrous for families, says a housing activist there.
About 2.9 million homes nationwide have already been lost to foreclosure and US officials estimate that 2.5 million more people may face foreclosure in the next couple of years, a disaster sparked by what has been revealed as aggressive and often reckless mortgage making by lenders that included the nation’s biggest banks.
Many of the foreclosures involved questionable loan terms, including interest rates destined to rise spectacularly after a few months of low, ’teaser’ rates. The loans were made by financial institutions at a time when the value of housing was going up and up.
These subprime mortgages were transformed into investments by financial institutions and traded around the globe as highly risky packages.
Now it is mortgage interest rates that are going up and housing value that is going down. Many houses are worth far less than what people paid for them.
In Boston, many homeowners are saddled with mortgages that are much higher than the value of the homes today.
Activist groups plan to target the G20 summit in Pittsburgh later this month, when high-level officials and leaders from the world’s biggest economies will meet to discuss national stimulus packages and strategies to ameliorate the global economic crisis.
The Bailout the People Movement, together with some major trade unions and other grassroots organizations, is setting up a tent city and a march for jobs. Dozens of other groups are still awaiting permits to hold demonstrations, as the city prepares to deploy a massive security presence of thousands of police officers, state troopers and National Guard.

Iran plans to build five new airports to bring the number of its airfields to 59 across the country, an Iranian official announced.
Ali Golmohammadi, the deputy head of Iran Airports Company for operational affairs, told Moj News Agency that the new airports will be built in the cities of Torbat-Heydarieh, Boroujerd, Makou, Saqqez and Abadeh.
“Some $70 million have been given to the company by the government this year to implement its construction projects,“ he said.
Golmohammadi says the company owns 54 airports, of which only four are economical.
The official previously said plans are underway to classify and standardize airports countrywide. He says systems, equipment and facilities will be provided to the airports to offer services in compliance with international standards.
Golmohammadi also said the number of transit flights via Iran increased by 4.7 percent in 2008 compared with the previous year.
Another senior aviation official said Iran will add five new western planes to its airlines in the next 30 days.
Iran plans to introduce 14 new passenger planes to its aviation fleet, acting Iranian Civil Aviation Organization Chief Mohammad Ali Ilkhani was quoted by Mehr News Agency as saying.
“Five Boeing and Airbus planes will join the fleet in the next month,“ he said.
Iran has banned its airlines from leasing more Russian-made aircraft or buying second-hand planes after two fatal accidents in July resulted in the deaths of 184 passengers with 30 more suffering injuries.
US sanctions prevent Iran from updating its 30-year-old American aircraft and make it difficult to get European spare parts or planes as well.
After being prevented from buying the latest Boeing or Airbus aircraft due to US sanctions, Iran has started a fleet modernization program based on the latest Russian aircraft, with outstanding orders for 35 Tupolev Tu-204 medium-range planes.

Qatar’s economy minister met with Iranian deputy economy minister in Tehran on Monday and called for his country’s investment in Iran’s telecommunications, tourism, banking and steel industries.
Mehr News Agency quoted Director of Organization for Investment, Economic and Technical Assistance of Iran (OIETAI) Behrouz Alishiri as saying ways of broadening economic and trade cooperation between the two countries were discussed in the meeting.
Alishiri highlighted the capacities of the Export Development Bank of Iran and the Export Guarantee Fund of Iran for expanding commercial ties.
The OIETAI president added that Iran is undergoing privatization and good opportunities in this regard will be offered to Qatari investors in a future conference.
Qatari Economy Minister Yousef Hussein Kamal conveyed his satisfaction with Alishiri’s suggestions and expressed hope Qatari financiers will invest in Iran. He also called for the establishment of Bank of Qatar in Iran and urged further cooperation in this regard.
Qatar has experienced rapid economic growth over the past several years and in 2008 posted its eighth consecutive budget surplus.
In July, Iranian Ambassador to Qatar Abdollah Sohrabi said Iran plans to open a trade center in Doha and has allocated a piece of land to build a Qatari trade center in Iran’s Bushehr city port.
Sohrabi disclosed that in the next four months, Doha will host the biggest Iranian trade fair.

An Iranian official says the flood of imports is leading to the closure of many textile mills across the country.
“Due to the reckless imports of foreign blankets, the blanket weaving industry is facing a decline in production,“ said Mohammad Moravvej-Hosseini, the head of the Board of Directors of Iran’s Textile Industry.
In an interview with IRNA, he said imports of fabrics and clothes, both legally and illegally, as well as personal imports have caused major difficulties for the industry.
“Issuing permissions to cargo dhows in the south to import goods independently has also been a factor in the reckless increase in [imported] goods,“ he said.
According to Moravvej-Hosseini, from the start of the current Iranian year (March 21), 30 percent of textile mills have been unable to renew their contracts with employees. About 280,000 people were active in the country’s textile industry and their numbers have been cut by the same ratio.
“Currently, many of the textile mills are facing a reduction in liquidity and working capital,“ he said.
The main sources of imported textiles are Turkey, China, Pakistan and India. “The value of imported cotton products from India over the past 5 months equals the whole of last year, while many [Iranian] mills are at a standstill.“
Moravvej-Hosseini noted that the biggest textile mill in the Middle East is in the city of Arak, which has also been affected.