Getting your player ready...
One out of every 495 households in Colorado was in some stage of foreclosure in April, ranking it No. 9 nationally, according to the latest RealtyTrac report today.
The national average was one out of every 593 homes in some stage of foreclosure, from the initial notice to the REO (real estate owned) transaction, when the bank takes possession. On a year-over-year basis, foreclosure activity in Colorado was down 31.4 percent in April, slightly less than the 35.3 percent drop for the entire nation, according to RealtyTrac. The huge drops largely are a reflection of the extra time it is taking lenders to foreclose on properties, rather than a sign the foreclosure crisis is healing, according to Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac.
Colorado’s foreclosure activity was down 8.6 percent from March, compared with the 8.56 percent national month-over-month drop.
Ryan McMaken, spokesman for the Colorado Division of Housing, who plans to release his own April foreclosure report on Tuesday, said that RealtyTrac’s analysis of Colorado seems to capture the market fairly well.
“I find these April numbers for Colorado to be plausible, and the large year-over-year increase further adds to the evidence that foreclosure activity during the first several months of this year continues to be well below the totals during the same period last year,” McMaken said. “The lengthening of the timelines for foreclosures, as mentioned by Realtytrac, does seem to be having an effect in Colorado as well, and is helping to drive down the total number of foreclosures being processed right now.”
Nationally, foreclosure activity is at more than a three-year low.
“Foreclosure activity decreased on an annual basis for the seventh straight month in April, bringing foreclosure activity to a 40-month low,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “This slowdown continues to be largely the result of massive delays in processing foreclosures rather than the result of a housing recovery that is lifting people out of foreclosure.
“The first delay occurs between delinquency and foreclosure, when lenders and services are no longer automatically pushing loans that are more than 90 days delinquent into foreclosure but are waiting longer to allow for loan modifications, short sales and possibly other disposition alternatives,” Saccacio continued. “Data from the Mortgage Bankers Association shows that about 3.7 million properties are in this seriously delinquent stage. The second delay occurs after foreclosure has started, when lenders are taking much longer than they were just a few years ago to complete the foreclosure process.”
Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com
