The main driver of foreclosures is the change in real estate prices.
The recent spike in home foreclosures in Massachusetts is caused by falling home prices, and not by rising mortgage payments, according to research released yesterday by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston……

This is misleading. It’s really the combination of declining prices AND the inability to pay.

When home prices were rising, people who ran into trouble or could not afford their payment did not go into foreclosure. They could sell in a rampant sellers’ market and come out with some cash.

The article makes it sound as if lower prices are the sole cause.