With the average time for lenders to repossess a housing unit up to a record 477 days nationwide, the fewest properties were foreclosed upon during the first quarter of 2013 in nearly six years.
According to RealtyTrac’s latest report, foreclosure filings—default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions—were reported on 442,117 U.S. properties between January and March 2013. This represents a decrease of 12% from the previous quarter and down 23% from a year ago.
On a monthly basis, 152,500 properties recorded a foreclosure filing in March, 1% less than February and 23% fewer than last year.
In the first quarter, the average time to foreclose on a property increased on a quarterly basis in 39 states, with nonjudicial states posting the greatest uptick in longer timeframes. For example, Oregon was up 61%, followed by Arkansas with a 42% increase, Texas was longer by 40%, Tennessee was up 37%, and Michigan had an increase of 22%.
Meanwhile, despite a 4% decline in the
Texas documented the shortest time to complete a foreclosure at 159 days, even though this is an increase of 40% from the prior quarter.
Overall, there were 43,597 REOs in March, the lowest level since September 2007 and down 21% from last year. The Irvine, Calif.-based analytic firm said 34 states posted annual declines in completed foreclosures, such as Oregon, Utah, Massachusetts, Michigan and Nevada.
Those states that bucked the downward trend included Arkansas, Maryland, Washington and Pennsylvania.
“Although the overall national foreclosure trend continues to head lower, late-blooming foreclosures are bolting higher in some local markets where aggressive foreclosure prevention efforts in previous years are wearing off,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. “Meanwhile, more recent foreclosure prevention efforts in other states have drastically increased the average time to foreclose, which could result in a similar outbreak of delayed foreclosures down the road in those states.”
RealtyTrac noted that nonjudicial states like Nevada, which implemented AB 284 in October 2011, Washington’s passage of the Foreclosure Fairness Act that went into effect July 2011, and Oregon’s mediation law enforcement beginning in 3Q 2012, have all helped homeowners avoid losing their property to foreclosure and
Despite such laws, U.S. foreclosure starts rose 2% from February to March, the second straight monthly increase after three consecutive decreases. A total of 73,113 foreclosure starts occurred in March, which is still down 28% from a year ago, RealtyTrac said.
