Foreclosure activity in April fell to its lowest level in approximately six years, showing signs that a housing recovery is in full effect, according to a monthly report from RealtyTrac.
During April, foreclosure filings were reported on 144,790 U.S. properties, which is a 74-month low. The latest figures are down 5% from the previous month and a 23% decrease on an annual basis.
A foreclosure filing can either be a default notice, scheduled auction or bank repossession.
The Irvine, Calif.-based firm’s report revealed that one in every 905 housing units throughout the country had foreclosure filing during the month.
One of the main highlights from the report is that foreclosures are continuing to work their way through judicial states.
“Foreclosure starts have been increasing for several months in many of the judicial states, and now that increased volume is showing up in the second stage of the process: the public foreclosure auction,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac.
Scheduled judicial foreclosure auctions increased 22% from March to April and were up 31% from a year ago, which is the highest level since October 2010. Blomquist added that these numbers show that lenders are “serious about moving forward with completing the foreclosure process, either through repossession or sale to a third party investor at public auction.”
For example, 15 of 26 judicial states had more scheduled auctions in April, including Maryland (up 199%), New Jersey (91%), Ohio (73%), Oklahoma (57%) and Florida (55%).
“The jump in scheduled foreclosure auctions should bring some much needed relief to both the Oklahoma City and Tulsa areas, where
On the other hand, scheduled auctions in nonjudicial foreclosure states were down both month-over-month and on a yearly basis by 7% and 43%, respectively.
Overall, a total of 70,133 housing units started the foreclosure process in April, a monthly decrease of 4% and down 28% from the same time period last year. Additionally,
Despite the national decline, 22 states reporting increasing foreclosure starts from the prior month, such as New Jersey, Connecticut, Texas, Georgia and Oregon. After California notices of default reached a 90-month low in January due to new legislation went into effect impacting the foreclosure process, foreclosure starts in the state were up for the third consecutive month.
“The increase in notice of defaults is an expected result of the California Homeowner Bill of Rights,” said Rich Cosner, president of Prudential California Realty. “This increase in notice of defaults will put no downward pressure on prices because demand for property is so high. It may move some homeowners, who have been living in their home for a long time without making payments, to put their home on the market, but you could put five times the number of notice of defaults on the market and the homes would be sold in less than 30 days.”
