John Rebchook is a former Rocky Mountain News reporter with more than 30 years of experience in writing and communications... Colorado foreclosure filings fell to a 30-month low in February, according to a report released today by the Colorado Division of Housing.
Foreclosure sales fell 26.4 percent from January to February as mortgage servicers continued to process foreclosures at an unusually slow pace in response to the “robo-signing” controversy that surfaced last fall.
Comparing year-over-year, foreclosure filings fell 34.7 percent in February, and year-to-date comparisons show that for the period including both January and February this year, foreclosure filings are down 18.8 percent as compared to the same period last year. There were 1,986 new foreclosure filings during February 2010 in Colorado’s metropolitan counties, compared to February 2010’s total of 3,042. A report released yesterday by SKLD, showed a similar trend.
Sales slide
Foreclosure sales at auction also continued to fall. Foreclosure sales fell 19.6 percent from February 2010 to February 2011. Year-to-date comparisons show that sales are down 20.8 percent for the period including both January and February this year as compared to the same period last year. Sales also fell 10.7 percent from January to February. There were 1,338 foreclosure sales during February 2011 in the metro counties, and 1,499 sales during February of last year.
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 auction at the end of the foreclosure process.
There has been an overall downward trend in foreclosure filings since the end of 2009, but February’s large drop should be at least partially attributed to a change in how foreclosures are being processed,” said Ryan McMaken, a spokesman for the Colorado Division of Housing. “It seems that servicers are still proceeding slowly in an effort to avoid more controversy about how they’re processing foreclosures, and this is driving the numbers down quite a bit.”
Across the board improvements
With the exception of Broomfield County, all metropolitan counties showed decreases in foreclosure filings of 20 percent or more, comparing year-over-year. From February 2010 to February 2011, foreclosure filings were flat in Broomfield County, but foreclosure filings fell 51.5 percent in Douglas County and 45.8 percent in Denver County.
Foreclosure sales totals also showed declines across the state. With the exception of Denver County, all metropolitan counties showed decreases in foreclosure sales at auction, comparing year-over-year. From February 2010 to February 2011, foreclosure sales were up 9.3 percent in Denver County while they fell 38.8 percent in Douglas County and 37.4 percent in El Paso County.
The Division of Housing’s monthly foreclosure report surveys foreclosure activity in the 12 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 blog: http://divisionofhousing.blogspot.com
Hi John.
Thanks for the informative post you have here. Do you think foreclosures across US will rise?
Keep the post coming,
Jen
As I have been saying….once the Gov. and banks decide to lend on residential RE using norms and standards they used for the 70 years prior to the extreme easy credit of 2002-2006 or the extreme tight credit of 2007-2011 we will see a nice recovery..The shadow buyers out number the shadow inventory…they just cannot get a loan in this weird tight credit market…. like the 70 years prior to these weird times, we need 90% LTV investor loans, self employed loans, and loans that allow middle America to keep their old home as a rental and buy another home….these loans will all be back at soem point, it is just a matter of how soon our Gov. puts the American people and economy ahead of strengthening bank balance sheets…..