The task force consists of Democratic and Republican legislators, mortgage lenders, community advocates and other stakeholders who will together develop smart ways to mitigate the growth of foreclosure listings in the state.

To make the STOP task force more in touch with the realities of foreclosure listings, STOP will hold hearings, meetings and sessions across the state over a period of 4 months to gather data on foreclosures and witness the causes and effects of large numbers of foreclosure listings.

The task force will listen to all sectors affected by foreclosure listings, including mortgage banks, servicers, housing advocates, local officials, nonprofits, community organizations and families directly affected by foreclosure listings.

Sheridan plans to release to the public initial results of hearings and meetings as the task force carry out their information gathering mission. Information gathered from the meetings is expected to result to public discussions that could produce smart ideas for legislation.

The speaker cited distressing foreclosure statistics in Wisconsin, including over 5,700 families whose homes have been added to foreclosure listings since January. He said if the rate of about 70 home foreclosures a day is not mitigated, there would be more 25,000 homes added to foreclosure listings in the state by the end of the year. He said statistics are not needed for anyone to see how foreclosure is affecting the state. One just needs to take a look at the rising number of for-sale signs on foreclosed homes in the neighborhood.

Based on RealtyTrac's foreclosure data, Wisconsin had 25,164 foreclosure filings in 2008, with 19,695 residential properties receiving foreclosure notices and with the areas of Milwaukee, Waukesha and West Allis accounting for 10,181 of the foreclosure filings.

Compared to other states, according to Sheridan and according to studies of foreclosure listings, Wisconsin's foreclosure problem is relatively mild. The ten states ranking high on charts of state foreclosures had foreclosure filings in hundred-thousands in 2008, such as California which had 523,624 filings, Florida which had 385,309 filings and Arizona which had 116,911 filings.

Therefore, Sheridan said, Wisconsin must do what it can do now to prevent the state from suffering the level of foreclosure crisis battering other states.