Foreclosures Frozen in February

landlord helpA market report by RealtyTrac, the leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties, shows a 14 percent decrease in February from the previous month and a 27 percent decrease from February 2010 ” the biggest year-over-year decrease since RealtyTrac began issuing its report in 2005.

The report also shows one in every 577 U.S. housing units with a foreclosure filing during the month.

Foreclosure activity dropped to a 36-month low in February as allegations of improper foreclosure processing continued to dog the mortgage servicing industry and disrupt court dockets, said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. While a small part of February’s decrease can be attributed to it being a short month and bad weather, the bottom line is that the industry is in the midst of a major overhaul that has severely restricted its capacity to process foreclosures. We expect to see the numbers bounce back, but that will likely take several months. And monthly volume may never return to its peak in March 2010 of more than 367,000 properties receiving foreclosure filings.

According the U.S. Foreclosure Market Report̢Ӣ, lenders foreclosed on 64,643 U.S. properties in February, down 17 percent from January and down 18 percent from February 2010. Bank repossessions (REO) hit a 22-month low in February and were down 37 percent from their peak of 102,134 in September 2010.

Bank repossessions in states with a judicial foreclosure process decreased 24 percent from January and were down 35 percent from February 2010, while bank repossessions in states with a non-judicial foreclosure process decreased 14 percent from January and were down 8 percent from February 2010.

Nevada, Arizona, California post top state foreclosure rates
Nevada posted the nation’s highest state foreclosure rate for the 50th straight month in February ” one in every 119 Nevada housing units had a foreclosure filing during the month “ despite a 22 percent decrease in foreclosure activity from the previous month. There were a total of 9,553 Nevada properties with a foreclosure filing in February, down 13 percent from February 2010.

Arizona posted the nation’s second highest state foreclosure rate, one in every 178 housing units with a foreclosure filing, and California posted the nation’s third highest state foreclosure rate, one in every 239 housing units with a foreclosure filing.

One in every 273 Utah housing units had a foreclosure filing in February, the nation’s fourth highest foreclosure rate, and one in every 298 Idaho housing units had a foreclosure filing during the month, the nation’s fifth highest foreclosure rate.

Other states with foreclosure rates ranking among the top 10 in February were Georgia, Michigan, Florida, Colorado and Hawaii.

Florida cities absent from top 20 metro foreclosure rates for second straight month
For the second month in a row, no Florida cities posted foreclosure rates in the top 20 among U.S. metropolitan areas with a population of 200,000 or more. That was in contrast to 2010, when the state accounted for nine of the top 20 metro foreclosure rates.

Some of the metro areas filling the spots vacated by Florida cities included Racine, Wis., at No. 12, Salt Lake City at No. 16, Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta at No. 17, and Detroit-Warren-Livonia at No. 18.

Nevada, California and Arizona cities continued to dominate the top 20, accounting for all top 10 metro foreclosure rates and 15 of the top 20 metro foreclosure rates in February. The Las Vegas-Paradise metro area continued to register the nation’s highest metro foreclosure rate, one in every 106 housing units with a foreclosure filing in February.

The other Nevada metro area in the top 10 was Reno-Sparks, at No. 9 with one in every 184 housing units with a foreclosure filing during the month.

Seven California metro areas posted foreclosure rates in the top 10, led by Modesto at No. 2, with one in every 140 housing units with a foreclosure filing, and Stockton at No. 3, with one in every 141 housing units with a foreclosure filing. Also in the top 10 were Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario at No. 5 (one in 144 housing units); Vallejo-Fairfield at No. 6 (one in 147 housing units); Merced at No. 7 (one in 153 housing units); Bakersfield at No. 8 (one in 166 housing units); and Sacramento-Arden-Arcade-Roseville at No. 10 (one in 189 housing units).

The Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale metro foreclosure rate ranked fourth highest: one in every 143 metro housing units had a foreclosure filing in February

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