Even though national foreclosure filings decreased in February, 21 states posted annual increases in foreclosure activity, according to new figures compiled by RealtyTrac.
Moreover, judicial states saw the biggest gains in foreclosure activity with a 24% increase from last year. However, non-judicial states had 23% fewer foreclosure filings year-over-year.
RealtyTrac CEO Brandon Moore said the figures are “not surprising” because judicial states had a larger backlog of foreclosures built up over the past 18 months.
RealtyTrac said foreclosure filings—default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions—were reported on 206,900 properties in February. This was down 2% from the previous month and of 8% from February 2011, representing the lowest annual difference since October 2010.
One in every 637 housing units had a foreclosure filing during the month.
“February's numbers point to a gradually rising foreclosure tide as some of the barriers that have been holding back foreclosures are removed,” said Moore.
It's anticipated that the recently inked 'robo-signing' settlement will help pave the way for a properly functioning foreclosure process while increasing filings in several states during the coming months.
Half of the nation's 20 largest metropolitan markets experienced greater foreclosure activity compared to a year ago, led by increases in the Florida cities of Tampa (+64%) and Miami (+53%).
Meanwhile, Western cities continued to see fewer foreclosure filings from the same time period last year, led by a 59% decrease in Seattle and a 43% decline in Phoenix.
Overall, new default notices were filed on 58,886 properties, up 1% from January but still down 7% from last year.
Foreclosure auctions were scheduled on 84,180 homes in February, a decrease of 2% from the prior month and lower by 13% from February 2011.
Lenders repossessed a total of 63,834 properties in February, down 4% from January and 1% from the same time period a year ago.
The top three states that posted the highest foreclosure rates continued to be Nevada, California and Arizona.
Nevada's foreclosure activity reached a 58-month low in February, but still had the nation's highest foreclosure rate where one in every 278 housing units had a foreclosure filing, more than twice the national average.
California had the second highest foreclosure rate even though the state reached a 51-month low in foreclosure activity as 48,422 properties (one in every 283 housing units) had some sort of foreclosure filing in February. The third greatest foreclosure rate was Arizona where one in every 312 properties had a foreclosure filing.
