Foreclosures Down 15% from Year Earlier

RealtyTrac^® (www.realtytrac.com) released its U.S. Foreclosure Market Report™ for August 2012 on September 13th, showing foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — were reported on 193,508 U.S. properties in August, an increase of 1 percent from July but down 15 percent from August 2011. The report also shows one in every 681 U.S. housing units with a foreclosure filing during the month.

• Illinois posted the nation’s highest foreclosure rate, one in every 298 housing units with a foreclosure filing. August was the first month that Illinois has ranked No. 1 since RealtyTrac began issuing its report in January 2005.
•  Twenty states registered year-over-year increases in foreclosure activity, led by judicial foreclosure states such as New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Illinois and Pennsylvania.
•  Foreclosure activity in the 24 non-judicial states and District of Columbia combined decreased 31 percent annually, although 15 non-judicial states and DC posted monthly increases in foreclosure activity, including Arkansas (61 percent), Utah (41 percent), Colorado (25 percent) and Washington (23 percent).
•  Following three straight months of year-over-year increases, U.S. foreclosure starts in August decreased 13 percent from a 17-month high in August 2011.
•  U.S. bank repossessions (REO) in August decreased 2 percent from the previous month and were down 19 percent annually — the 22^nd consecutive month with a year-over-year decline in REOs.

“Bucking the national trend, deferred foreclosure activity boiled over in several states in August,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president of RealtyTrac. “In judicial states such as Florida, Illinois, New Jersey and New York, this was a continuation of a trend we’ve been seeing for several months now. The increases in Florida and Illinois pushed foreclosure rates in those states to the two highest in the country — supplanting the non-judicial states of Arizona, California, Georgia and Nevada. Previous to August, the nation’s top two state foreclosure rates have been from those four non-judicial states every month since December 2010.

 “Meanwhile foreclosure activity in most non-judicial states stayed on a downward trajectory in August, with a few exceptions,” Blomquist continued. “Most notably, Washington state documented a 38 percent annual increase in foreclosure activity in August after 16 straight months of year-over-year declines. The rebounding activity in Washington state is likely the result of lenders catching up with foreclosures delayed by a state law that took effect in July 2011 and allowed homeowners facing foreclosure to request mediation. This rebounding pattern will likely be repeated in the coming months in other states that have passed legislation delaying the foreclosure process.”