Foreclosures mixed bag in 3Q

Three major metropolitan areas in Colorado have a higher home foreclosure rate than the nation’s average, according to a third-quarter report released today by RealtyTrac.

Greeley had the highest foreclosure rate in Colorado, according to the Irvine, Calif.-based company. Greeley had a foreclosure rate of 1.56 percent of all households in some stage of foreclosure, according to RealtyTrac. That is more than twice the national average of 0.72 percent, according to the company that tracks and sells foreclosure data. RealtyTrac ranked Greeley No. 21 out of the 206 metropolitan statistical areas it tracks.

The Denver-Aurora area, ranked No. 52, and Colorado Springs, with foreclosure rates of 0.85 percent and 0.77 percent, respectively, also had higher rates than the national average. However, with foreclosure rates of 0.53 percent and 0.44 percent, Boulder and Fort Collins-Loveland, respectively, had lower rates than the national average.

Across the country, foreclosures were down 0.79 percent from the third quarter of 2009, but in Colorado, by far the largest increase was in Greeley, which was up 18.96 percent from. However, foreclosure activity was down 2.4 percent in the Denver area, and fell by a whopping 33.45 percent in the Fort Collins area. Boulder experienced a 1.63 percent drop and Colorado Springs foreclosures fell by 3.45 percent.

In the third quarter, there were 13,708 homes in the five Colorado MSAs, accounting for 1.47 percent of the 930,437 foreclosures reported nationwide, according to an analysis of the data by InsideRealEstateNews. Unlike other organizations, such as the Colorado’s division of housing, which distinguishes between foreclosure filings and sales by the public trustee, RealtyTrac combines all of the actions into one number. The most were in the Denver-Aurora, MSA, with 9,013, followed by 2,002 in Colorado Springs and 1,468 in Greeley. The last number puzzled Ryan McMaken, of the Colorado Division of Housing, who tracks information directly from county public trustee offices. Colorado is the only state in the U.S. to exclusively use the public trustee system for foreclosures.

RealtyTrac, McMaken notes, shows about 1,400 foreclosures for Greeley during the third quarter, but all of Weld County had only about 1,000 total foreclosures. So if RealtyTrac us adding filings and sales at auctions, he wondered what other areas they are including.  ”The Fort-Collins-Loveland and Denver Aurora numbers seem workable, but I can’t figure out why the Greeley number is so much higher than my number,” McMaken said..

Usual suspects lead nation

Nationally, cities in California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona once again accounted for all top 10 foreclosure rates in the third quarter among metropolitan areas with a population of 200,000 or more, according to RealtyTrac. Cities outside those four states accounted for many of the biggest increases in metro foreclosure activity. California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona cities also accounted for 19 of the top 20 metro foreclosure rates. The only exception was Boise City-Nampa, Idaho at No. 14, which was one of only five metro areas in the top 20 to post a year-over-year increase in foreclosure activity — along with the Florida metro areas of Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach at No. 7, Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond at No. 15, Naples-Marco Island at No. 18, and Palm Bay- Melbourne-Titusville at No. 19.

Among all 206 metro areas tracked in the report 133 (65 percent) posted year-over-year increases in foreclosure activity, and 11 of the nation’s 20 largest metro areas posted year over- year increases. Seattle-Tacoma- Bellevue led the way with a 71 percent increase in foreclosure activity from the third quarter of 2009, followed by Chicago-Naperville-Joliet with a 35 percent increase, Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown with a 26 percent increase, Detroit- Warren-Livonia with a nearly 23 percent increase, and Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta with a 20 percent increase.

“The underlying problems that are causing homeowners to miss their mortgage payments — high unemployment, underemployment, toxic loans and negative equity — are continuing to plague most local housing markets,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “And these historically high foreclosure rates will continue until those problems are resolved.”

Las Vegas No. 1

Las Vegas-Paradise continued to post the nation’s highest metro foreclosure rate in the third quarter, with one in every 25 housing units (3.98 percent) receiving a foreclosure filing — more than five times the national average. A total of 32,288 properties in the metro area received a foreclosure filing during the quarter, an increase of nearly 2 percent from the previous quarter but a decrease of 20 percent from the third quarter of 2009.

Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., documented the nation’s second highest metro foreclosure rate, with one in every 35 housing units (2.84 percent) receiving a foreclosure filing during the third quarter — nearly four times the national average. A total of 10,352 properties in the metro area received a foreclosure filing during the quarter, an increase of 12 percent from the previous quarter but a decrease of nearly 22 percent from the third quarter of 2009. The other Florida metro area in the top 10 was Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach at No. 7 (2.42 percent).

With one in every 36 housing units (2.76 percent) receiving a foreclosure filing during the third quarter, Modesto, Calif., posted the nation’s third highest metro foreclosure rate despite a nearly 18 percent decrease in foreclosure activity from the third quarter of 2009. Other California metro areas in the top 10 were Stockton at No. 4 (2.59 percent); Merced at No. 5 (2.48 percent); Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario at No. 6 (2.46 percent); Bakersfield at No. 9 (2.25 percent); and Vallejo-Fairfield at No. 10 (2.23 percent).

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