Thirty-three metropolitan areas showedrnyear-over-year decreases in excess of 50 percent and ten had decreases of thatrnmagnitude since the previous six-month period. rnThe majority of the cities showing these large drops in foreclosurernactivity are located in Florida.  Onlyrnone Florida city, Cape Coral-Ft. Myers, remains in the top 20 for foreclosurernactivity (at number 12) compared to the first half of 2010 when Florida heldrnnine of the top 20.  </p

While RealtyTrac isrnsilent on any causative factors, one wonders if the dip in Florida indicatesrnsystemic problems such as delays for legal reasons rather than any improvementrnin the housing situation, especially given the persistently high level of unemployment inrnthe state. <br /
California, Nevada and Arizona cities now accountrnfor all top 10 metro foreclosure rates and 15 of the top 20 metro foreclosurernrates.  The remaining five cities werernlocated in Idaho, Georgia, Utah, and Colorado. rnDespite an 18 percent decline from the last half of 2010, Las Vegasrncontinues to be the city with the highest foreclosure rate with 43,944 filingsrnduring the six-month period. Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale had the second highestrnrate with 60,985 filings, a decrease of 8 percent from the previous period andrn17 percent from one year earlier.</p

Thernsole city among the largest 20 where foreclosure activityrnwas up was Seattle, which increased 10 percent to rank 57 among all 200 cities,rnup from 97 in the first half of last year. rnDespite decreases of over 10 percent and 13 percent respectively, twornother large cities moved up in the ranks of foreclosure activity.  Houston moved from a 109 rank to 91 andrnMinneapolis from 79 in the first half of 2010 to 64.</p

A 74 percent year-over-year decreasernin foreclosure activity helped push Baltimore’s foreclosure rate ranking fromrnnumber 83 in the first half of 2010 to 182 in the first half of 2011 – thernbiggest drop in rankings among the nation’s 20 largest metro areas. That wasrnfollowed by Washington, DC, down from 67 in the first half of 2010 to 131 andrnBoston which moved from number 120 to number 158. </p

Therernwere two metro areas that showed a huge spike in activity.  Des Moines, Iowa had an increase of 149rnpercent year over year taking it from number 163 on the list to number 55 whilernFayetteville, NC went from number 201 to number 170 with a 182 percentrnincrease.  A footnote to the Des Moinesrnnumber indicates that the increase may be due in part to data collectionrnchanges but no explanation is offered for the Fayetteville numbers.</p

“Foreclosure activity continued tornslow in the first half of 2011, especially in the most foreclosure-saturatedrnmarkets and in markets where the judicial foreclosure process is used,” saidrnJames J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “The 20 metro areasrnwith the biggest year-over-year decreases in foreclosure activity were all inrnstates with judicial foreclosure processes – New York, Maryland, Florida, NewrnJersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Illinois.</p

“These dramatic decreases indicaternthe foreclosure pipeline continues to be clogged in many local markets acrossrnthe country, sometimes by a glut of already-foreclosed properties that are notrnselling quickly, sometimes by a mountain of improperly filed foreclosures thatrnare blocking the inflow of new foreclosure filings – and sometimes by both.”

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