Foreclosure activity increased 9 percent nationally in January

Foreclosure activity increased 9 percent nationally in January
Based on RealtyTrac U.S. foreclosure-market report

Staff Report
Foreclosure activity up 57 percent from Jan, 2007Bank repossessions (REOs) up 90 percent year over year

IRVINE, Calif. – Feb. 26. RealtyTrac® (www.realtytrac.com), a leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties, today released its January 2008 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report™, which shows foreclosure filings — default notices, auction sales notices and bank repossessions — were reported on 233,001 properties during the month, an increase of 8 percent from the previous month and an increase of nearly 57 percent from January 2007.

“January’s foreclosure numbers demonstrate that foreclosure activity is continuing on its upward trend, substantially increasing from a year ago in many states,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “However, the 8 percent monthly increase in January is not as precipitous as the 19 percent spike we saw in January of 2007, and several key states actually experienced decreasing foreclosure activity from the previous month. It could be that some of the efforts on the part of lenders and the government — both at the state and federal level — are beginning to take effect. The big question is whether those efforts are truly helping homeowners avoid foreclosure in the long term or if they are just temporarily forestalling the inevitable for many beleaguered borrowers.”

Nevada, California, Florida post top state foreclosure rates
Despite a month-over-month drop in foreclosure activity, Nevada continued to document the highest foreclosure rate among the 50 states. Foreclosure filings were reported on a total of 6,087 Nevada properties during the month, a 45 percent decrease from the previous month but still a 95 percent increase from January 2007.California’s January foreclosure rate ranked second highest among the states, and Florida’s January foreclosure rate ranked third highest. Other states with foreclosure rates ranking among the top 10 were Arizona, Colorado, Massachusetts, Georgia, Connecticut, Ohio and Michigan.

California, Florida, Texas report highest foreclosure totals
Foreclosure filings were reported on a total of 57,158 properties in California in January, the most of any state. The state’s foreclosure activity was up 7 percent from the previous month and up 120 percent from January 2007.Despite a 3 percent month-over-month decrease in foreclosure activity, Florida’s total of 30,178 properties with at least one foreclosure filing was the nation’s second highest state total. The state’s foreclosure activity was up nearly 158 percent from January 2007.The nation’s third highest January total was in Texas, where foreclosure filings were reported on 14,698 properties — a nearly 20 percent increase from the previous month, but a slight decrease from January 2007. The state’s monthly foreclosure rate was below the national average and ranked No. 13 among the states.Ohio, Michigan and Georgia all documented totals of more than 10,000 properties with foreclosure filings reported in January.

Other states in the top 10 in terms of total properties with foreclosure filings reported were Arizona, Massachusetts, Illinois and Colorado.

California and Florida cities dominate top metro foreclosure rates
California and Florida metro areas accounted for eight of the top 10 metro foreclosure rates in January. The Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., metro area documented the highest January foreclosure rate among the 229 metro areas tracked in the report. The other Florida metro area in the top 10 was Port St. Lucie-Fort Pierce, which ranked No. 10. The Stockton, Calif., metro area documented the second highest metro foreclosure rate. Other California metro areas in the top 10 were Riverside-San Bernardino at No. 3, Modesto at No. 4, Merced at No. 5, Vallejo-Fairfield at No. 7 and Bakersfield at No. 9.Other cities in the top 10 were Las Vegas at No. 6 and Greeley, Colo., at No. 8.

Report Methodology
The RealtyTrac Monthly U.S. Foreclosure Market Report provides a count of the total number of properties with at least one foreclosure filing reported during the month — broken out by type of filing at the state and national level. Data is also available at the individual county level. RealtyTrac’s report incorporates documents filed in all three phases of foreclosure: Default — Notice of Default (NOD) and Lis Pendens (LIS); Auction — Notice of Trustee Sale and Notice of Foreclosure Sale (NTS and NFS); and Real Estate Owned, or REO properties (that have been foreclosed on and repurchased by a bank). If more than one foreclosure document is filed against a property during the month — which is extremely rare — only the most recent filing is counted in the report.