John Rebchook is a former Rocky Mountain News reporter with more than 30 years of experience in writing and communications... Colorado ranked 12th in the country for its foreclosure rate in January, according to a national report released today.
The ranking is a marked improvement from just a few years ago, when Colorado’s foreclosure rate was leading the nation, according to RealtyTrac, the Irvine, Calif.-based company that released the report. In 2006, Colorado was No. 1 for the most of the year. In 2007, it was usually ranked in the top three. Even as foreclosure rates soared in other states, surpassing Colorado’s rate, the state was typically on RealtyTrac’s top 10 list.
1 out of 428 households in foreclosure
For January, one out of every 428 households in Colorado was in some stage of foreclosure, compared with the overall U.S. average of one out of every 409 households. And while the national foreclosure rate dropped 9.67 percent from December, Colorado’s dropped by 16.31 percent. Some 5,029 homes were in some stage of foreclosure from the first Notice of Default to REO (Real Estate Owned) when the bank takes over the property following a public trustee auction, according to RealtyTrac, which collects and sells real estate data.
Colorado holding its own
Ryan McMaken, spokesman for the Colorado Division of Housing, which is last week released its own foreclosure report, using a different methodology, said it makes sense that Colorado has a lower foreclosure rate than the national average, ” given the unprecedented growth in foreclosures in places like Florida, California, Arizona and Michigan. Colorado simply wasn’t able to keep up with those places when it came to new foreclosures.”
Also, Colorado’s unemployment rate is lower than the national average of just below 10 percent.
“Now employment is the driving factor, and since Colorado has a better unemployment rate than the national average, I expect to see foreclosures here continue to fall behind the national rate,” McMaken said.
Still, “we shouldn’t be smug, of course,” he added. “There’s still no positive job growth in Colorado and we have yet to see what will happen when the home buyer tax credits finally expire,” later this year.
For the entire nation, there were 315,716 properties in January in some stage of the foreclosure process, according to RealtyTrac. REO activity nationwide was down 5 percent from the previous month, but up 31 percent from January 2009; default notices were down 12 percent from the previous month, but up 4 percent from January 2009; and scheduled foreclosure auctions were down 11 percent from the previous month, but up 15 percent from January 2009.
Foreclosure surge may be coming
“January foreclosure numbers are exhibiting a pattern very similar to a year ago: a double-digit percentage jump in December foreclosure activity followed by a 10 percent drop in January,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac “If history repeats itself we will see a surge in the numbers over the next few months as lenders foreclose onsdelinquent loans where neither the existing loan modification programs or the new short saleand deed-in-lieu of foreclosure alternatives works.”
Nevada was ranked No. 1, with one out of every 95 homes in some stage of foreclosure. Nevada has had that dubious honor for 37 consecutive months. California, Florida and Arizona posted the three highest state totals in terms of properties receiving foreclosure filings in January, and together those states accounted for more than 44 percent of the national total.
Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com or 303-945-6865.
Colorado has a dangerous position in foreclosure statistic. For sure must be careful to not enter in Top10 and stay with high numbers