Questions about debts or bankruptcy? Call Doug Beaton, a local specialist in American bankruptcy law.

Recently I posted on how unemployment is now the biggest reason for the surge in foreclosures in the Merrimack Valley (it used to be predatory lending, the so-called “liar loans.”).

It turns out that the situation here on the Massachusetts – New Hampshire border is just a reflection of what’s going on all over the nation.

Alex Viega reported for the Associated Press today that the U.S. is on pace to have more than one million residential foreclosures in 2010. A typical year would see only 100,000.

Viega writes that “economic woes, such as unemployment or reduced income, continue to be the main catalysts for foreclosures. Initially, lax lending standards were the culprit. Now, homeowners with good credit who took out conventional, fixed-rate loans are the fastest-growing group of foreclosures.

There are more than 7.3 million home loans in some stage of delinquency, according to Lender Processing Services.

The Obama administration’s $75 billion foreclosure prevention effort has made only a small dent in the problem. Over a third of the 1.2 million borrowers who have enrolled in the mortgage modification program have dropped out.”

If loan modification isn’t working for you, bankruptcy might. A call to a bankruptcy attorney doesn’t take much time, doesn’t cost you upfront, and will set you straight on the facts, costs and procedures.

Photo: Paul Sakuma, Associated Press

By Doug Beaton

More long-term homeowners with “good’’ fixed-rate mortgages are facing foreclosure, likely because of job losses, according to a University of Massachusetts Lowell researcher.

The financial industry appears to have worked through much of the “bad’’ adjustable-rate mortgages from the housing bubble, many from predatory lenders, UMass Lowell researcher and writer Keith Vaillancourt told the Boston Globe .

More and more long-term homeowners with conventional fixed rate loans are facing foreclosure this year, indicating the problem is spreading rapidly to middle class people hit with job cutbacks.

“We’ve been seeing families affected more and more by the poor job market, families losing income due to job loss or hours being cut or overtime being cut,’’ Jaunita Bonilla, a director at Lawrence Community Works, said. “In some cases, families purchase their home with two jobs, it was the only way they could afford to purchase a home . . . and they’ve lost one of those jobs. It’s a vicious cycle going on.’’

Writing in the Merrimack Valley Housing Report, Vaillancourt reported that pending orders of notice and actual foreclosures are up over 2009 in Haverhill, Lawrence, Lowell, and Methuen, sometimes more than double. Even suburban Dracut showed large increases. Only Lawrence stayed level in actual foreclosure deeds.

Emily Rosenbaum of the Home Preservation Center in Lowell related a typical case story: “One gentleman we helped recently was a contractor who had his own construction company who had to close it due to lack of business. Now he works at Lowe’s,’’ said Rosenbaum. “He was in his mid-50s. We were able to get him a loan modification; he’s going to be OK, he saved his home. But he had to make some dramatic lifestyle changes.’’

An additional kicker is that each foreclosure adds to the inventory of “REO” properties — bank held houses that depress the market while they sit idle, vacant, and deteriorationg as they wait to be sold.

If you are caught in a foreclosure situation, a bankruptcy filing might be able to help you in one of three ways: It can buy you more time in your house rent-free, while you search for new lodging; if you still have steady income, a house can be saved through Chapter 13; and bankruptcy avoids income tax complications associated with short sales and deeds in lieu of foreclosure.

By Doug Beaton