John Rebchook is a former Rocky Mountain News reporter with more than 30 years of experience in writing and communications... Colorado ranked No. 10 with its foreclosure rate in the first half of the year, shows a national report released today by RealtyTrac.
The report showed there were 30,177 properties in some stage of foreclosure through June. That equates to one out every 71 homes, which is close to the national average of one out of every 78 homes in some state of foreclosure, from the initial filing to REO (Real Estate Owned) when the bank takes back the home.
The number of homes in foreclosure in the first six months of the year have risen 13.6% compared to the same period in 2009. Nationally, the increase was 8.26 percent, according to the Irvine, Calif.-based company.
Nationally, it reported 1.96 million foreclosure filings on 1.654 properties, which is a 5 percent decrease in properties from the previous six months. In the previous six months, from July to December 2009, foreclosure activity in Colorado fell by 9.1 percent.
“The second quarter was a tale of two trends,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “The pace of properties entering foreclosure slowed as lenders pre-empted or delayed foreclosure proceedings on delinquent properties with more aggressive short sale and loan modification initiatives. Meanwhile the pace of properties completing the foreclosure process through bank repossession quickened as lenders cleared out a backlog of distressed inventory delayed by foreclosure prevention efforts in 2009.
“The midyear numbers put us on pace to exceed 3 million properties with foreclosure filings by the end of the year, and more than 1 million bank repossessions,” Saccacio added. “The roller coaster pattern of foreclosure activity over the past 12 months demonstrates that while the foreclosure problem is being managed on the surface, a massive number of distressed properties and underwater loans continues to sit just below the surface, threatening the fragile stability of the housing market.”
Colorado not out of the woods
Ryan McMaken, of the Colorado Division of Housing, which tracks foreclosures in Colorado using a different methodology than RealtyTrac, said that Saccacio’s observations mirror what he is seeing.
“The trends for new foreclosure filings (in Colorado) are encouraging, but the number of completed foreclosures continues to show few signs of a fast decline,” McMaken said. “Their mixed total of filings and completed foreclosures for the first half of the year is at a rate that reflects what I’m seeing, and I would be surprised to see any big swings in foreclosure data right now. Foreclosure activity in the state continues to move along a high plateau that may be coming down slightly, but there are few indications that numbers will move rapidly upward or downward very soon.”
But he said that RealtyTrac’s methodology does leave some questions unanswered. “Since Realtyrac doesn’t break out the state trends for the first half of the year between new filings and completed foreclosures, or provide a time series, it’s difficult to say if their local data reflects the same trend,” McMacken said.
Short sale activity grow
Tom Cryer, a broker with the Kentwood Co., recently complete an analysis of Denver-area housing, which he said clearly shows that foreclosure activity peaked in 2008. However, bank foreclosures have been replaced with short sales, in which the lender agrees to accept a sale for less than the mortgage amount. He described short sales as “thinly veiled foreclosures.” Nationally, Nevada has the highest foreclosure rate, with almost 6 percent of its homes, one in 17, receiving at least one foreclosure filing in the first half of the year, according to RealtyTrac. Arizona and Florida were No. 2 and No.3, respectively.
Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com or 303-945-6865
If one takes the time to think about this they realize that there are real people in bad situations behind these numbers. In qualifying situations short sales are better outcomes than foreclosure. Personally I feel an obligation to try and help them.
[...] July 15th, Colorado Real Estate columnist John Rebchook reported that ‘Colorado No. 10 for foreclosures’ in InsideRealEstateNews.com. This isn’t the best news for those who were looking forward or anticipating an improvement [...]