Foreclosures Might Have Peaked
Good news from RealtyTrac this morning, as it reports that foreclosure filings -- default notices, auctions and reposessions -- fell 9 percent from March to
Jul 31, 202071.4K Shares1M Views
Good news from RealtyTrac this morning, as it reportsthat foreclosure filings — default notices, auctions and reposessions — fell 9 percent from March to April, evidence that the foreclosure crisis might have peaked last month.
In the good column: The number of homes receiving default notices fell 12 percent and the number of foreclosure auctions fell 13 percent. In the bad: Bank repossessions hit an all-time high, with banks taking over 92,432 homes last month alone, an increase of 45 percent year-on-year.
“There were two important milestones in the April numbers that show foreclosure activity has begun to plateau — but at a very high level that will not drop off in the near future,” RealtyTrac’s chief executive officer, James Saccacio, said in a release. “April was the first month in the history of our report with an annual decrease in U.S. foreclosure activity. Secondly, bank repossessions, or REOs, hit a record monthly high for the report even while default notices dropped substantially on a monthly and annual basis. We expect a similar pattern to continue for most of this year, with the overall numbers staying at a high level and ripples of activity hitting the various stages of the foreclosure process as lenders systematically work through the backlog of distressed properties.”
The “sand states” — Nevada, Arizona, Florida and California — continued to bear the worst of the foreclosure crisis. And the report noted that strategic defaults are rising, and could bump the foreclosure number up again in the coming months.
Rhyley Carney
Reviewer
Latest Articles
Popular Articles