RealtyTrac: New Foreclosures Fall

RealtyTrac, an online foreclosure marketplace based in Irvine, Calif., has reported that the number of new properties in some stage of foreclosure fell 13% in March.The company's Monthly U.S. Foreclosure Market Report indicates that 101,597 new foreclosure properties were added to the rolls in March. "After rising more than 20% during each of the first two months of the year, foreclosure numbers experienced a fairly sharp correction in March," said James J. Saccacio, RealtyTrac's chief executive officer. "We saw a similar drop in March of '05, followed by four consecutive months of increases. Many buyers and investors typically start looking for properties in the spring, and that could have provided distressed homeowners a better chance of selling their properties to avoid default or foreclosure." The company said Colorado recorded the highest foreclosure rate of any state in March, jumping 31% (to 5,392 new foreclosures) from February's level. RealtyTrac can be found online at http://www.realtytrac.com.