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Foreclosure activity in Colorado has not fallen as fast as the overall nation, keeping the state in ninth place for its foreclosure rate, according to a RealtyTrac report released today.
Colorado’s foreclosure activity in the first quarter fell by 13.6 percent from a year earlier, but that is about 50 percent year-over-year drop of 28.95 percent, according to Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac. Foreclosure activity in Colorado is down 11.9 percent from the fourth quarter, also trailing an almost 14.8 percent drop for the nation.
In Colorado, one out of every 157 homes is in some state of foreclosure activity, compared with one out of every 191 homes for the nation. RealtyTrac, which combines every aspect of the foreclosure process from the initial filing until the property become a REO (real estate owned) after it is purchased by a bank at a public trustee auction, showed total foreclosure filings of 13,847 in the first quarter.
RealtyTrac seems in the right neighborhood
Ryan McMaken, spokesman for the Colorado Division of Housing, said that “broadly speaking,” he thinks the RealtyTrac numbers will support his finding for March and the first quarter. For example, he said it is “pretty clear” that first-quarter filings will be down from the fourth quarter of last year.
“New filings really fell off quite a bit in January and February, as the lender continued to process new foreclosures very slowly,” McMaken said. “The numbers came back up a little in March, but the first quarter they should still show up as being pretty slow for filings. Completed foreclosures, on the other hand will likely show an increase from the fourth quarter to the first quarter. The Realtytrac numbers show an overall decrease from the fourth quarter to the first quarter, but I think that misses an increase in sales activity. He added that as far as month-over-month changes, “both filings and sales came up a bit from February’s numbers, so the Realtytrac numbers reflect that well, and March 2011 s totals are well below March 2010 s totals. This is especially the case with new filings.”
Colorado no Florida
However, McMaken said he is “a bit puzzled by the ranking Colorado is ranked right behind Florida in its rankings for the first quarter. In the light of the Mortgage Banker Association’s delinquency data, I’m surprised to see Florida placed near Colorado. In the delinquency data for the fourth quarter, (the most recent data), Florida’s delinquency and foreclosure events have rates at least twice as high as the rates in Colorado in virtually every category. The most notable is the fact that , according to MBA, 14 percent of Florida’s loans were in foreclosure while only 2.53 percent of Colorado’s loans were in foreclosure. Among loans that were 90 days past due or more, Florida’s rate was twice that of Colorado’s. I’m somewhat comparing apples and oranges here, but I would definitely scrutinize a number that suggests that Colorado is similar to Florida when it comes to foreclosure activity.
Nationwide snapshot
Nationwide, foreclosure filings were reported on 239,795 U.S. properties in March, a 7 percent increase from February, but still down 35 percent from March 2010, when 367,056 homeowners received a foreclosure notice – the highest monthly total in the history of the RealtyTrac monthly report since its inception in January of 2005.
3-year low for foreclosures
“The nation’s housing market continued to languish in the first quarter, even as foreclosure activity fell to a three-year low,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “Weak demand, declining home prices and the lack of credit availability are weighing heavily on the market, which is still facing the dual threat of a looming shadow inventory of distressed properties and the probability that foreclosure activity will begin to increase again as lenders and servicers gradually work their way through the backlog of thousands of foreclosures that have been delayed due to improperly processed paperwork.”
A total of 197,112 U.S. properties received default notices for the first time in the first quarter, a 17 percent decrease from the previous quarter and a 35 percent decrease from the first quarter of 2010. A total of 73,393 properties received default notices in March, up 16percent from February but still down 37 percent from March 2010.
Foreclosure auctions were scheduled for the first time on a total of 268,995 U.S. properties in the first quarter, a 19 percent decrease from the previous quarter and a 27 percent decrease from the first quarter of 2010. Foreclosure auctions were scheduled on 93,228 U.S. properties in March, down 4 percent from February and down 41 percent from March 2010.
Lenders foreclosed on 215,046 U.S. properties in the first quarter, a 6 percent decrease from the previous quarter and a 17 percent decrease from the first quarter of 2010. In states where the non-judicial foreclosure process is primarily used, bank repossessions (REOs) increased 9 percent from the previous quarter, and March REOs increased on a monthly basis in both nonjudicial and judicial foreclosure states.
Nevada, Arizona, California top
Nevada posted the nation’s highest state foreclosure rate, with one in every 35 housing units with a foreclosure filing, despite a 10 percent decrease in foreclosure activity from the previous quarter. In March, Nevada’s foreclosure activity increased 35 percent from February after two straight monthly decreases.
Bank repossessions increased 26 percent in Arizona from February to March, helping to keep the state’s foreclosure rate second highest in the nation for the first quarter: one in every 60 Arizona housing units received a foreclosure filing during the quarter. The state’s first quarter foreclosure activity increased 15 percent from the fourth quarter – the second highest quarterly increase of any state – but was still down 17 percent from the first quarter of 2010.
First quarter foreclosure activity in California decreased 4 percent from the previous quarter and was down 22 percent from the first quarter of 2010, but the state still posted the nation’s third highest foreclosure rate, with one in every 80 housing units with a foreclosure filing during the quarter. First quarter bank repossessions in California increased 17 percent from the previous quarter, while March default notices increased 28 percent from February.
One in every 98 Utah housing units had a foreclosure filing in the first quarter, the fourth highest state foreclosure rate, and Idaho posted the fifth highest state foreclosure rate: one in every 106 housing units with a foreclosure filing during the quarter.
