Foreclosure Rates Soar in March. Ten States Account for Majority of Filings

Foreclosurernfilings including default notices, scheduled auctions, and bank repossessionsrnrose 7 percent in the first quarter of 2010 compared to the third quarter ofrn2009 and were up 16 percent from the first quarter one year ago.  This information came today in a report from RealtyTrac,rnthe Irvine California company that tracks the foreclosure market.

Legalrnactions were filed against 932,234 properties during the quarter; one in everyrn138 U.S. housing units received a filing during the period.  In March alone there were 367,056 filings, anrnincrease of nearly 19 percent over February and 8 percent above the rate onernyear earlier.  This is the highestrnmonthly total since RealtyTrac issued its first report in January 2005.

Thernpattern of filings, however, offered a glimmer of hope that things gettingrnbetter.  Default notices were received onrn304,799 properties but this was an increase of only 1 percent from the previousrnquarter and was 1 percent lower than in the first quarter of 2009.  It was also down 11 percent from the peak ofrn342,000 default notices filed in the third quarter of 2009. 

The biggest increases were first notices ofrnscheduled auctions and actual repossessions, both signifying the final stagesrnof the process.  Auctions were scheduledrnon 369,491 properties, an increase of 12 percent from the previous quarter andrn21 percent from one year earlier, and set a new high mark for the filings.  Bank repossessions also hit a record highrnwith 257,944 properties repossessed by the lender during the quarter, up 9rnpercent from the previous quarter and a whopping 35 percent from the firstrnquarter of 2009.

James J. Saccacio, chiefrnexecutive officer of RealtyTrac said of the report, “Foreclosure activity inrnthe first quarter of 2010 followed a very similar pattern to what we saw in thernfirst quarter of 2009: a shallow trough in January and February followed by arnsubstantial spike in March. One difference, however, is that the increases werernmore tilted toward the final stage of foreclosure, with REOs increasing 9rnpercent on a quarterly basis in the first quarter of 2010 compared to a 13rnpercent quarterly decrease in REOs in the first quarter of 2009.”

“This subtle shift in thernnumbers pushed REOs to the highest quarterly total we've ever seen in ourrnreport and may be further evidence that lenders are starting to make a dent inrnthe backlog of distressed inventory that has built up over the last year asrnforeclosure prevention programs and processing delays slowed down the normalrnforeclosure timeline.”

As usual, Nevada had thernhighest number of filings with 34,557, or one in every 33, housing units in thernstate receiving some type of filing, more than four times the national averageand an increase of 15 percent from Quarter Four.  This is the 13th consecutivernquarter that Nevada has had the dubious honor of leading the nation in filings;rnhowever, the state's rate was 16 percent lower than one year earlier.

Arizona was again in secondrnplace for the third consecutive quarter with one in 49 properties receiving arnfiling.  Florida recorded filings on onernin 57 properties, and California ranked fourth with one in every 62 housingrnunits affected.  California filings,rnhowever, were down 6 percent from one year earlier.

In Utah, foreclosurernactivity was up 21 percent for the quarter and 75 percent from one year earlier.  Nearly 11,000 properties received filings,rnone of every 88 housing units

In actual numbers, tenrnstates accounted for more than 70 percent of all foreclosures in therncountry.  California alone had 23 percentrnof all activity with 216,263 properties receiving a notice during thernquarter.  Florida was second with 153,540rnfilings and Arizona third with 55,686 filings.

RealtyTrac issues itsrnreport based on the total number of properties in its database receiving atrnleast one filing during the month or quarter. rnData is collected from more than 2,200 counties nationwide, accounting forrnmore than 90 percent of the U.S. population.

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