Home auctions in Japan increase 46% in April-Sept.+

TOKYO, Dec. 6 Kyodo - The number of single-family houses and condominium units auctioned off in Japan jumped 46.3 percent from a year earlier to 30,180 between April and September amid high unemployment and falling incomes, a real estate industry group said
Sunday.

''The effects of last year's financial crisis have just begun to be felt so a
full-fledged increase in home auctions should occur toward spring,'' said a top
official of Fudosan Kyobai Ryutsu Kyokai.
After homeowners become insolvent, it normally takes more than a year before
their homes are put on the block.
Many homeowners have been told by their banks to auction their houses because
they became unable to repay mortgage loans due to joblessness or sharp pay
cuts, according to the group.
For the past several years, the number of homes, offices and stores that were
auctioned hovered between about 50,000 and 60,000 per year. The number of home
auctions alone appears to be on course to top that level in the year ending
next March.
The number of single-family houses auctioned in the first six months of the
current fiscal year surged 57.3 percent to 22,286 and the figure for condos
jumped 22.3 percent to 7,894.
Aichi Prefecture was hit particularly hard in the July-September quarter with
auctions of single-family houses soaring nearly fivefold, the sharpest rise
seen among Japan's 47 prefectures.
Many residents in Aichi apparently had to give up their houses because of the
financial plight of Toyota Motor Corp., which is headquartered there along with
a number of other companies in the automotive industry.
==Kyodo