Foreclosure Activity Continues to Decline

Foreclosure activity continued torndecline in November and is now down 14 percent from one year ago when one inrnevery 492 U.S. housing units was the subject of a foreclosure filing.  In November 2011 that number dropped to onernin every 579 units.  RealtyTrac reportedrnthis morning that the 224,394 filings in November also represented a 3 percentrndecrease from filings in October. </p

RealtyTrac, an Irvine Californiarncompany, compiles a U.S. Foreclosure Market Report^TM each month by trackingrndocuments filed in all three stages of foreclosure:</p

1.  Notice of Default (NOD) and Lis Pendens (LIS). This is the first legal notificationrnfrom a lender that the borrower on a mortgage loan has defaulted under thernterms of their mortgage and the lender intends to foreclose unless the loan isrnbrought current.</p

2.  Auction – Notice of Trustee Sale and Notice of Foreclosure Salern(NTS and NFS): if thernborrower does not catch up on their payments the lender will file a notice ofrnsale (the lender intends to sell the property). This notice is published inrnlocal paper and contains information pertaining to the date, time and subjectrnproperty address. </p

3.  Real Estate Owned or REO properties : “REO” stands for “real estate owned”rnand typically refers to the inventory of real estate that banks and mortgagerncompanies have foreclosed on and subsequently purchased through the foreclosurernauction if there was no offer higher than the minimum bid.</p

All three filing categories were lowerrnthan one year ago and the only category that increased compared to the previousrnmonth was foreclosure auctions which were scheduled on 96,540 properties duringrnthe month, an increase of 13 percent from October but down 17 percent from onernyear earlier.  RealtyTrac reported thatrnthis category was up more than 35 percent in several states includingrnCalifornia where 63 percent more auctions were scheduled than in October,rnWashington which increased 56 percent, Ohio (+53 percent), New Jersey and NewrnYork up 44 percent and 38 percent respectively.</p

Default notices were filed for the firstrntime on 71,730 properties, down 8 percent from October and 9 percent fromrnNovember 2010.   </p

The final step in the process, repossession ofrnthe property or REO was down 17 percent from both October and from Novemberrn2010 with 56,124 properties affected. rnThis was the lowest level of REO activity in 44 months. </p

Despite the improving numbers, whichrnhe called a seasonal slowdown, James Saccacio, co-founder of RealtyTrac said, “November’srnnumbers suggest a new set of incoming foreclosure waves, many of which may rollrninto the market as REOs or short sales sometime early next year. Overallrnforeclosure activity is down 14 percent from a year ago, the smallest annualrndecrease over the past 12 months, and some bellwether states such as California,rnArizona, and Massachusetts actually posted year-over-year increases inrnforeclosure activity in November.</p

“Scheduled foreclosure auctionsrnreached a nine-month high in November, corresponding to a recent surge inrndefault notices that began back in August,” Saccacio continued. “Many of thernnew defaults that started the foreclosure process over the past few months arernnow being scheduled for public foreclosure auction.”</p

There were few changes on the staternlevel as Nevada led in the rate of filings for the 59^th straightrnmonth despite the impact of a new state law that alters the foreclosure processrnin the state.  One in every 175 housingrnunits in the state received a foreclosure notice in November, more than threerntimes the national average and a 3 percent increase over the 45 month lowrnachieved in October.  The rate was stillrndown 43 percent from one year earlier.  </p

Scheduled auctions were at a 10rnmonth high in California and one in every 211 properties received some type ofrnfiling. The 63,689 filings in California represented 28 percent of thernnational total.</p

In Arizona, which consistently ranksrnamong the top three states for foreclosure activity, filings increased on arnyear-over-year basis for the first time since October 2010.  One in every 256 properties received a filingrnin November, more than twice the national average.</p

The other two states in the top fivernfor foreclosure activity were Utah, with a 74 percent increase for the monthrnand Georgia, up 23 percent.  In Utah onernin 290 units received a foreclosure notice and in Georgia the rate was one inrn330 units.  </p

Besides California, other statesrnwith high numbers of foreclosures were Florida, Michigan, Illinois, andrnGeorgia. 

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