John Rebchook is a former Rocky Mountain News reporter with more than 30 years of experience in writing and communications... Foreclosure sales in some of Colorado’s largest counties soared by 61 percent in January from January 2009, shows a report released today by the Colorado Division of Housing. Still, they are down 29 percent from 2008, when foreclosures peaked. And foreclosure filings were down 3 percent last month from January 2008 and down 17 percent from January 2008.
Foreclosure filings are the initial filing that begins the foreclosure process, and foreclosure sales totals are the total number of foreclosures that have been sold at public trustee auction at the end of the foreclosure process. In many cases, the bank holding the loan wins the bid and the home becomes known as a REO, or Real Estate Owned property.
Ryan McMaken, spokesman for the housing division, and the author of the report, is not alarmed by the spike in foreclosure sales, which had been declining at the end of 2009, compared to a year earlier.
“What happened is that we had all of those moratoria in the fall of 2008 through January of 2009, which led to lower foreclosure activity,” McMaken said. “I think the big fear was that we would see a big jump in foreclosure activity after they ended, although for the most part that did not happen. We did see a fairly significant jump between June and July of last year, but it was fairly short-lived
“Recent movements in foreclosure sales and filings reflect recent overall trends, as monthly sales totals have moved upward and monthly filings totals have moved downward,” according to the report.The report goes on to say that the “movements in foreclosure sales reflect movement in foreclosure filings, but lag by six to eight months. (If the) current relationship between filings and sales continues, foreclosure sales will begin to fall again during spring 2010.”
Foreclosures vary hugely by county
Foreclosure activity varied by county. The counties with the largest decreases from January 2009 to January 2010 in filings activity were Douglas County and Denver County, where filings decreased by 26 percent and 17 percent, respectively. The largest increase was in Mesa County where filings increased 159 percent year-over-year.
Foreclosure sales activity increased in all metropolitan counties during January of this year compared to January of 2009. The smallest increase was in Denver County where sales increased 19 percent. The largest increase was found in Mesa County where foreclosure filings increased 337 percent from January 2009 to January 2010. However, measuring changes in foreclosure sales activity since 2008, all counties reported falling foreclosure sales except Boulder and Mesa Counties.
The county with the highest rate of foreclosure sales was Weld County with a rate of 532 households per foreclosure sale. Adams County was a close second with 535 households per foreclosure sale. The lowest rate was found in Boulder County where there were 1,779 households per foreclosure sale. The largest increase in foreclosure rates since 2009 was found in Mesa County where the foreclosure rate more than tripled year-over-year.
Not out of the wood yet
McMaken, however, said there may be more foreclosures in the pipeline. The Mortgage Bankers Association reports that the number of mortgages in Colorado that were “seriously delinquent” at the end of 2009 rose to 5.87 percent from 3.96 percent during the same period in 2008, more than a 48 percent increase. Seriously delinquent loans are at least 90 days overdue and typically in the early stages of a foreclosure. In 2005, only 1.97 percent of the loans were seriously delinquent, and the percentages have risen every year since them.
“Basically, they went from 4 percent at the end of 2008 to 6 percent at the end of 2009, if you round off the numbers,” McMaken said. “That is a pretty significant one-year increase.” He said he expects that foreclosure sales by public trustees “will slowly ebb downward through the spring. But as far as filings, who knows?”
The housing division’s monthly foreclosure report surveys foreclosure activity in the twelve largest counties of Colorado. The report is a supplement to the Division’s quarterly foreclosure report that includes all counties in Colorado.
The full report is available on the Division of Housing this link.
| County | January 2009 | January 2010 | Percentage change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adams | 424 | 382 | -9.9% |
| Arapahoe | 403 | 402 | -0.2% |
| Boulder | 77 | 107 | 39% |
| Broomfield | 22 | 23 | 4.5% |
| Denver | 512 | 426 | -16.8% |
| Douglas | 190 | 141 | -25.8% |
| El Paso | 356 | 365 | 2.5% |
| Jefferson | 225 | 273 | 21.3% |
| Larimer | 153 | 137 | -10.5% |
| Mesa | 56 | 145 | 158.9% |
| Pueblo | 142 | 115 | -19.0% |
| Weld | 259 | 213 | -17.8% |
| Total | 2819 | 2729 | -3.2% |
[table id=76 /
Source: Colorado Division of Housing
Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com or 303-945-6865.
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