John Rebchook is a former Rocky Mountain News reporter with more than 30 years of experience in writing and communications... It may be the bottom of the Denver-area housing market, but it is too early to say that the foreclosure crisis is over.
There were 10,726 foreclosure filings in the metro Denver area in the first half of the year, a 10.5 percent decline from the 11,992 the first six months of 2008.
“That is still a big number,” noted Ryan McMaken, spokesman of the Colorado Division of Housing, when I shared the numbers with him.
But beyond that, changes in the state law late last year and bank moratoriums on foreclosure filings last fall, played a role in the drop in foreclosures.
“There is no obvious trend right now,” McMaken said. It may not be until the third-quarter numbers are available that it is clear where we stand in the foreclosure cycle.
One of the big factors that helped drive down foreclosures this year were lenders voluntarily not pursuing foreclosures, starting last fall, and into the spring of this year, said Carol Snyder, public trustee for Adams County.
“The major, big-boy lenders had a self-imposed moratoriums on filings, starting around Thanksgiving of last year,” Snyder said. “That led to a huge drop.”
But starting in about April, attorneys began to send more foreclosure filings to her office, she said.
Overall, Adams County saw a 11.6 percent drop in the first six months of the year compared to the same period last year. But from April 2008 to April 2009, Adams County saw a 14.98 percent increase in foreclosures, and from June 2008 to June 2009, it saw a 9.6 percent drop. But from May 2008 to May 2009, there was a big lull, with new foreclosure filings dropping by 22.5 percent.
And from May to June, foreclosures rose by 21.6 percent in Adams County.
