Foreclosure sales in Colorado are on track to drop in the first quarter compared with a year ago, despite rising unemployment, a Colorado Division of Housing survey shows.
The projected decrease is especially pronounced in the hard-hit housing markets of Adams, Arapahoe and Denver counties.
Foreclosure sales rose 43 percent in February from January in the state’s nine largest counties, which account for 80 percent of Colorado’s foreclosures.
March sales also are moving higher from February.
“It is still too early to know exactly what the recession may mean for foreclosure totals,” Kathi Williams, the division’s director, wrote in the report. “March might be the first month that we start to really see the impacts of layoffs on homeowners.”
Foreclosures usually follow spikes in job losses, although there can be a lag of several months for the trend to appear.
Sales are accelerating in Mesa County — although they are still low — and are running on track with last year’s pace in El Paso and Pueblo counties, the survey shows.
The division typically issues foreclosure reports quarterly, but it took an early look at January and February activity given rapidly increasing job losses.
The state’s unemployment rate shot up from 4.8 percent in September to 6.6 percent in January.
The survey found that even if foreclosure sales jump by 50 percent in March from February, overall activity is still expected to be down for the quarter.
Aldo Svaldi: 303-954-1410 or asvaldi@denverpost.com
