John Rebchook is a former Rocky Mountain News reporter with more than 30 years of experience in writing and communications... Colorado is off the top 10 list it never want to be on.
In October, Colorado’s declining foreclosure ranked it No. 11 in the nation ,with one foreclosure filing for every 421 households, according to a report released today by California-based RealtyTrac.
Colorado’s foreclosure activity in October was down by 6.08 percent from October 2008, while the nation, as a whole showed an 18.86 percent year-over-year increase, according to the Irvine, Calif.-based company.
From September to October, Colorado showed a 18.75 percent decline in total foreclosure filings, while the nation showed a 3.5 percent drop.
In Colorado, one out of every 421 households had some kind of foreclosure filings, ranging from what it calls a notice of default to REO (real-estate owned.) Nationwide, one out of every 385 households had some kind of real estate filings.
“Looking at my estimates for October, It looks like Realtytrac’s October number for foreclosure filngs (what they call NTS) is in the neighborhood of the true number,” said Ryan McMaken, of the Colorado Division of Housing. “Last month’s totals by our calculations were similar, although Realtytrac shows an 18 percent decrease from September.”
McMaken noted that October 2008 was “quite a big month for foreclosures, so it’s not surprising that Realtytrac shows a decrease for this year over last year. It’s unlikely that October’s totals, once we finish calculating them, will top last year’s October total.”
RealtyTrac reported 1,261 REOs in Colorado in October, which McMaken thought was too small. He said that his data is likely to show a higher number of REOs in metro-Denver area counties than RealtyTrac is reporting for the entire state.
Nationwide, RealtyTrac reported 332,292 foreclosure filings, which include default noitces, scheduled foreclosure auctions and bank repossession, a decreae of 3 percent from September, but up almost 19 percent from October 2008.
“Three consecutive monthly declines is unprecedented for our report, and on first blush an
indication that the foreclosure tide may be turning,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive
officer of RealtyTrac. “However, the fundamental forces driving foreclosure activity in this
housing downturn — high-risk mortgages, negative equity, and unemployment — continue to
loom over any nascent recovery. And despite all the efforts and resources directed at helping
homeowners avoid foreclosure, we continue to see foreclosure activity levels that are
substantially higher than a year ago in most states.”
Despite a 26 percent decrease in foreclosure activity from the previous month, Nevada
continued to document the nation’s highest state foreclosure rate — one in every 80 housing
units received a foreclosure filing in October. A total of 13,842 Nevada properties received a
foreclosure filing during the month, a 4 percent decrease from October 2008 and the first ever
year-over-year decrease in Nevada since RealtyTrac began tabulating the year-over-year
change in January 2006. Nevada default notices were down 10 percent from October 2008,
and scheduled foreclosure auctions were down 6 percent from October 2008, while bank
repossessions were up 8 percent from October 2008. A new foreclosure mediation program
implemented by state law (AB 149) in July may be slowing the inflow of distressed properties
into the foreclosure pipeline.
With one in every 156 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing in October, California posted
the nation’s second highest state foreclosure rate for the second month in a row.
A total of85,420 California properties received a foreclosure filing during the month, a decrease of 1.06 percent from the previous month but still nearly 50 percent above the total reported in
October 2008. The state’s default notices and scheduled foreclosure auctions were up 120
percent and 73 percent respectively from October 2008, when California foreclosure activity
was in the midst of a three-month trough after a law (SB 1137) requiring lenders to give
distressed homeowners extra notification before initiating foreclosure took effect in September
2008.
Florida posted the third highest state foreclosure rate, with one in every 168 housing units
receiving a foreclosure filing in October. A total of 51,911 Florida properties received a
foreclosure filing during the month, a nearly 6 percent decrease from the previous month and
a decrease of 4 percent from October 2008. It was the first year-over-year decrease in overall
Florida foreclosure activity since July 2006.
Other states with foreclosure rates ranking among the nation’s 10 highest were Arizona,
Idaho, Illinois, Michigan, Georgia, Maryland and Utah.
Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com or 303-945-6865.
