Foreclosure Activity Remains Near Record Level In August, According To RealtyTrac

IRVINE, Calif. – RealtyTrac® (www.realtytrac.com), the leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties, today released its August 2009 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report™, which shows foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — were reported on 358,471 U.S. properties during the month, a decrease of less than 1 percent from the previous month but still an increase of nearly 18 percent from August 2008. The report also shows one in every 357 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing in August.

“The August report demonstrates that there is still an ample supply of properties filling the foreclosure pipeline even while the outflow of bank-owned REO properties onto the resale market is being more carefully regulated,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “After hitting a high for the year in July, REOs dropped 13 percent in August, but we also saw a record high number of properties either entering default or being scheduled for a public foreclosure auction for the first time.”

Nevada, Florida, California post top state foreclosure rates

With one in every 62 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing in August, Nevada continued to document the nation’s highest state foreclosure rate despite an 8 percent decrease in foreclosure activity from the previous month. A total of 17,902 Nevada properties received a foreclosure filing during the month, still an increase of 53 percent from August 2008.

Florida documented the nation’s second highest state foreclosure rate, with one in every 140 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing, and California documented the nation’s third highest state foreclosure rate, with one in every 144 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing.

A 10 percent month-to-month decrease in foreclosure activity helped lower Arizona’s foreclosure rate from the nation’s third highest in July to fourth highest in August. One in every 150 Arizona housing units received a foreclosure filing in August — still more than twice the national average.

Other states with foreclosure rates ranking among the nation’s 10 highest were Michigan, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Georgia and Illinois.

Six states account for more than 60 percent of national total

Six states accounted for 62 percent of the nation’s total foreclosure activity in August despite decreasing REOs in all six states. California REOs dropped 32 percent from the previous month, but the state continued to post the highest overall total of any state, with 92,326 properties receiving a foreclosure filing in August. California’s total was down 15 percent from the previous month and was also down 9 percent from August 2009 — the first year-over-year decrease in California foreclosure activity in RealtyTrac’s monthly reports.

A total of 62,401 Florida properties received foreclosure filings in August, the nation’s second highest state total and an increase of more than 10 percent from the previous month despite a 5 percent decrease in REO filings. Initial default notices in Florida increased 12 percent from the previous month, and scheduled auctions increased 13 percent from the previous month.

A new law in Michigan requiring lenders to file a separate public notice of default before scheduling a foreclosure auction boosted overall foreclosure activity numbers in the state for August. A total of 9,789 of the new default notices were filed after the law took effect in early August, bringing the total number of Michigan properties receiving foreclosure filings to 19,359 for the month — a 134 percent spike from the previous month and third highest among the states. Michigan’s foreclosure rate leapfrogged from 19th highest in July to fifth highest in August.

With 17,902 properties receiving foreclosure filings in August, Nevada posted the nation’s fourth highest total despite a 24 percent decrease in REO filings from the previous month, and with 17,807 properties receiving foreclosure filings in August, Arizona posted the nation’s fifth highest total despite an 11 percent decrease in REO filings from the previous month.

Illinois REO filings decreased 15 percent from the previous month, but the state’s total of 13,078 properties receiving foreclosure filings was still sixth highest among all the states in August.

Other states with totals among the 10 highest in the country were Georgia (11,947), Ohio (11,368), Texas (11,261) and New Jersey (8,316).

Three states dominate top 10 metro foreclosure rates

Foreclosure filings were reported on 14,940 Las Vegas properties in August, one in every 53 housing units — more than 6.7 times the national average and the highest foreclosure rate among metro areas with a population of at least 200,000. The city’s foreclosure activity was down 11 percent from the previous month but still up 48 percent from August 2008.

With one in every 86 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing in August, the Reno-Sparks metro area joined Las Vegas in the top 10, posting the seventh highest metro foreclosure rate.

Six California metro areas documented foreclosure rates among the top 10 in August. Stockton posted the nation’s second highest metro foreclosure rate — one in every 74 housing units received a foreclosure filing — followed by Merced at No. 3 (one in 78), Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario at No. 4 (one in 80), Vallejo-Fairfield at No. 5 (one in 82), Modesto at No. 6 (one in 84), and Bakersfield at No. 10 (one in 94).

Two Florida metro areas documented foreclosure rates among the top 10: Orlando-Kissimmee at No. 8 with one in every 87 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing, and Cape Coral-Fort Myers at No. 9 with one in every 88 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing.

Report methodology

The RealtyTrac 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. Data is collected from more than 2,200 counties nationwide, and those counties account for more than 90 percent of the U.S. population. 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, only the most recent filing is counted in the report. The report also checks if the same type of document was filed against a property in a previous month. If so, and if that previous filing occurred within the estimated foreclosure timeframe for the state the property is in, the report does not count the property in the current month.

About RealtyTrac Inc.
RealtyTrac (www.realtytrac.com) is the leading online marketplace of foreclosure properties, with more than 1.5 million default, auction and bank-owned listings from over 2,200 U.S. counties, along with detailed property, loan and home sales data. Hosting more than 3 million unique monthly visitors, RealtyTrac provides innovative technology solutions and practical education resources to facilitate buying, selling and investing in real estate. RealtyTrac’s foreclosure data has also been used by the Federal Reserve, FBI, U.S. Senate Joint Economic Committee and Banking Committee, U.S. Treasury Department, and numerous state housing and banking departments to help evaluate foreclosure trends and address policy issues related to foreclosures.