Hedge fund billionaire Louis Bacon may have won his battle with Xcel to preserve the views of Trinchera Peak.

If you combined their land holdings, their ranches would exceed the size of Connecticut.

These six moguls either are based in Colorado, have have strong ties to Denver, or have large real estate holdings in Colorado.

Led by John Malone, chairman of locally-based Liberty Media, and the nation’s No. 1 landowner, these half-dozen ranch barons together own more than 4 million acres of property, according to the fall edition of the Land Report, which recently published a list of the top 100 landowners in the U.S.

That’s the equivalent of all the land in Connecticut with enough room left over to add five cities the size of Denver.

Malone accounted for more than half of the total, with 2.2 million acres. His holdings include the 290,100-acre Bell Ranch in New Mexico, as well as more than a million acres of timberland in Maine and New Hampshire. He bought a million acres this year alone, putting him ahead of long-time friend, CNN-founder Ted Turner. Turner ranked No. 2 on the list this year. Indeed, Malone says it was Turner who first inflicted him with “this land-buying disease.”

Malone: Good time to buy

Malone’s land-buying spree in 2011 was fueled by the same factors considered by many recent home buyers who are not billionaires – depressed prices and low interest rates.

He told Land Report that he operates his property to break even and he thinks real estate is a “pretty decent hedge on the devaluation of currency.” Ultimately, Malone plans to put all of his land into perpetual conservation easements.

Here are others based in Colorado or with strong ties to the state who made the list.

Rank: No. 10

Who: Stan Kroenke

Acres: 740,000

What LandReport said: Stan Kroenke is perhaps most famous for his extensive ownership interests in various professional sport franchises: the NFL’s St. Louis Rams, the NBA’s Denver Nuggets, the NHL’s Colorado Rapids, the MLS’s Colorado Rapids. But he’s also made a name for himself in the West with his CedarRanch, PV Ranch and Q Creek Land & Livestock Company. If you find yourself at Kroenke’s Pepsi Center in Denver to watch his Nuggets play, try a buffalo burger at his Blue Sky Grill, supplied by his herd at Q Creek.”

Rank: No. 18

Who: Philip Anschutz

Acres: 434,493

What Land Report said: Although fiercely private, Philip Anschutz has made his name known in a wide variety of industries thanks to his unerring business acumen. In addition to owning sizeable and successful ranching operations such as the Overland Trail Cattle Company in Wyoming, his Anschutz Corporation has worldwide investments in energy exploration and production, real estate, ranching and agriculture, telecommunications, newspapers, and Internet publishing. And his Anschutz Entertainment Group, the world’s largest owner and operator of sports and entertainment venues, recently made new by announcing a new NFL stadium in Los Angeles.

Rank: No. 25

Who: Patrick Broe

Acres: 310,000

What Land Report said: The Broe Group founder Patrick Broe champions sustainability and conservation efforts on his ranches At his Notch Peak Ranch in Wyoming, the focus is an ongoing reforestation project as well as initiatives to protect wild game. The ranch is home to one of the area’s largest herds of bighorn sheep. At his Great Western Ranch in New Mexico, Broe works to preserve the spirit of the true Western ranch, complete with a large, well-managed herd of cattle an an abundance of big game.

Rank: 45

Who: Louis Moore Bacon

Acres: 212,000

What Land Report said: The bulk of this hedge fund manager’s holdings can be found in Southern Colorado, where his 171,000-acre Trinchera Ranch abuts Great Sand Dunes National Park in the San Luis Valley. Trinchera is also home to the fifth highest peak in the lower 48. A noted conservationists, Bacon is battling to prevent Xcel Energy and Tri-State Generation from erecting a $180 million power line that will run some 136 miles over La Veta Pass and into San Luis Valley. (Editor’s Note: Xcel said this week it is considering pulling its plans for the power line due to a lack of projected demand and other factors.)

Rank: No. 87

Who: Linnebur Family

Acres: 110,000

What Land Report said: The family had a proud history of land-holdings in Colorado. Gene Linnebur and descendants of his late brother, Emmett and Lloyd continue the tradition in a variety of farming and ranching endeavors, including Linnebur Grain & Buffalo.

To read the entire Land Report magazine, please visit this link.

Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com

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One out of every 168 households in Colorado were in some stage of foreclosure – from the first notice until the bank repossession at a public trustee sale – according to the Irvine, Calif.- based company. That compared to the national average of one out of every 213 homes in some stage of foreclosures

Colorado showed a 20.8 percent drop in foreclosure activity from the third quarter 2010, compared with a 34.4 percent drop for the nation. Foreclosure activity in Colorado picked up 0.82 percent from the second quarter, compared with a 0.35 percent increase for the nation.

Boulder showed the lowest foreclosure rate of major cities in Colorado, with one out of every 342 households in some stage of foreclosure. That is a 32.7 percent year-over-year drop, and a 0.55 percent increase from the second quarter.

In the Denver-Aurora metropolitan statistical areas, one out of every 156 households were in some stage of foreclosure, a 24.35 percent decline from the third quarter 2010 and a 0.38 percent increase from the second quarter.

Greeley showed a 11.3 percent from the third quarter, one of only four 20 metro areas to show a quarter-to-quarter decrease. Foreclosure activity was down 39 percent in Greeley from the third quarter of 2010.

Nationally, foreclosure filings were reported on 214,855 U.S. properties in September, a 6 percent decrease from August and a 38 percent decrease from September 2010.  September marked the 12^th straight month where foreclosure activity decreased on a year-over-year basis.

“U.S. foreclosure activity has been mired down since October of last year, when the robo-signing controversy sparked a flurry of investigations into lender foreclosure procedures and paperwork,” said James Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “While foreclosure activity in September and the third quarter continued to register well below levels from a year ago, there is evidence that this temporary downward trend is about to change direction, with foreclosure activity slowly beginning to ramp back up.

“Third quarter foreclosure activity increased marginally from the previous quarter, breaking a trend of three consecutive quarterly decreases that started in the fourth quarter of 2010,” Saccacio continued. “This marginal increase in overall foreclosure activity was fueled by a 14 percent jump in new default notices, indicating that lenders are cautiously throwing more wood into the foreclosure fireplace after spending months spent trying to clear the chimney of sloppily filed foreclosures.”

Nevada posted the nation’s highest state foreclosure rate — one in every 44 housing units with a foreclosure filing in the third quarter. Overall Nevada foreclosure activity decreased from the previous quarter thanks to a drop in scheduled auctions and REO. Default notices, however, n Nevada increased 15 percent from the second quarter to the third quarter — boosted in part by a 16 percent month-over-month increase in defaults in September.

Area	1 out of every household in foreclosure	Change from 2nd quarter	Change from 3rd quarter 2010
Boulder	342	0.56%	-32.7%
Colorado Springs MSA	171	4.4%	-24.2%
Denver-Aurora MSA	156	0.4%	24.3%
Denver City and County	215	-10.0%	-34.5%
Fort Collins-Loveland	200	7.4%	-4.4%
Grand Junction	114	-2.2%	23.65%
Greeley	105	-11.3%	-39.0%
Pueblo	136	0.8%	10.5%
Colorado	168	0.86%	-20.8%
U.S.	213	0.35%	-34.4%

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Only five states are in better shape than Colorado when it comes to foreclosures and other distressed properties, according to a recently released report.

Colorado, especially in the Denver area, was one of the first states to be hit by the foreclosure crisis, while other states such as California, Arizona, Florida and Nevada were still enjoying the boom part of the real estate cycle, before the bubble burst.

By every measure – percentage of loans that are delinquent, percentage of home loans in default and mortgages that are not-current – Colorado is in far better shape than those once high-flying states, as well as the entire U.S., shows the July “Mortgage Monitor” report by Lender Processing Services Inc. The Jacksonville, Fla. company tracks data on about 40 million loans nationwide.

Bleeding is slowing

“Compared with the national average, it seems  like the bleeding in Colorado is slowing,” said Jason Miller, owner of Milan Realty.

The LPS report shows 5.4 percent of the loans in Colorado are delinquent, 35 percent lower than the national average of 8.34 percent. Mississippi had the highest delinquency rate at 14.6 percent, followed by Nevada at 10.6 percent.

In Colorado, only 1.8 percent of the loans constituted what LPS describes as the “foreclosure pre-sale inventory rate.” That is 56 percent lower than the national average of 4.1 percent.

Florida had the highest percentage of loans in foreclosure, at 13.8 percent. Florida also was the only state in the country that had more foreclosures than delinquent loans. Its delinquency rate was 9.1 percent.

Colorado was in much better shape than the nation as a whole as far as non-current loans. In Colorado, 7.1 percent of the loans weren’t current, which is 43 percent lower than the national average of 12.45 percent.

Florida led the nation in that category, with 22.9 percent of the loans not being current.

Only Montana, Wyoming, Arkansas, South Dakota and North Dakota, were in better shape than Colorado. North Dakota had the lowest percentage of delinquent loans at 3.5 percent. All of those states have much lower populations than Colorado.

Market not yet healthy

Although Colorado is doing well in relation to the vast majority of the country, it still is burdened with too many distressed properties, said Milan Realty’s Miller.

“The healing process will take some time,” Miller said.  “In order to get back to a “normal” market, we will need to see many more “organic” non-distress sales as a percentage of total sales.  Nevertheless, this market is starting to  recover slowly.”

Ryan McMaken, spokesman for the Colorado Division of Housing, noted that the LPS’s data is very close to what the Mortgage Bankers Association is reporting.

“Colorado is in the bottom third in both cases,” McMaken said.

Foreclosures lengthy process

For the entire country, LPS had one extremely sobering fact – nationwide, homeowners who are in foreclosure on average have not made a payment in a record 599 days.

LPS did not break down the number of days that borrowers have not made payment on a state-by-state basis.

“The 599-day number is probably higher than what is the case in Colorado,” said McMaken, who prepares his own report on Colorado foreclosure activity.

“I know that, by law, the days for foreclosure can range from 30 days in Texas to more than a year in Florida,” McMaken said. “In practice, these periods are probably longer. Colorado is probably somewhere in the middle. I know that there are certainly cases where a foreclosure can take a couple of years, but since it’s four months by law in this state, and since my data tends to show sales peak 6-9 months after a peak in NEDs (Notice of Election and Demand, the first legal step in a foreclosure), a more typical time period to process a foreclosure is probably around six to nine months, or 180 to 270 days”

Many not dodging foreclosure bullet

The LPS report also noted that nationally only 25 percent of the 30-day delinquencies are first-time delinquencies.

McMaken described that as an “interesting” statistic that infers homeowners who avoided losing their homes in the past, are now again in danger of foreclosure.

“Although not all 30-day delinquencies become foreclosures, of course, it stands to reason that many of the new NEDs we see now are on loans that were  in default in the past,” McMaken said. “Those foreclosure cases may have been withdrawn, but they’re now back in foreclosure.”

McMaken also said that foreclosures are not only hitting lower-priced homes.

“It stands to reason that many of the high-risk homeowners who were most prone to job loss and foreclosure have already defaulted at some point since 2009,” McMaken said. “I’ve commented in the past that the new foreclosure filings must include more high-income people and people with better credit scores who just couldn’t keep holding on after 3 years of a bad job market.”

Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com

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Only 1,274 Colorado homeowners were in the required “Active Trials” portion of the HAMP – Home Affordable Modification Program – in July, 7.5 percent below the previous low set in June. Meanwhile, 9,364 people were accepted into the permanent modification program in July, 271 more than in June.

Nationally, there are 675,447 homeowners in the permanent modification program, far below the 2 million to 3 million homeowners the Obama Administration initially hoped to help. The foreclosure problem has been vexing, because the root cause for people losing their homes has changed to people losing their jobs, from the initial cause of mortgages that were too high. Since June, 22,079 homeowners across the country entered the trial modification part of HAMP.

Servicer pressure

“While tens of thousands of additional homeowners benefit from the Administration’s programs each month, we need to keep the pressure on servicers to effectively assist those homeowners who are still struggling and eligible for assistance,” said Treasury Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability Tim Massad. “These assessments provide an unprecedented level of information about servicer performance and are designed to help more eligible homeowners walk away from this process with better results.”

“The Obama Administration is dedicated to helping homeowners who were negatively affected by the housing crisis and this month’s scorecard shows signs of these programs working,” said HUD Assistant Secretary Raphael Bostic. “Data shows improvements in home prices, which have increased three months in a row, and a reduction in foreclosure starts and completions, which have been trending downward since fall 2010. Although the data suggests improvement, we are still continuing to work with homeowners, lenders, servicers, and others so that this positive trend continues. ”

As the Administration continues to take steps to prompt servicers to provide more effective assistance to struggling homeowners through its foreclosure prevention programs, the continued fragility of the housing market demonstrates the need for the Administration’s recovery efforts in hard hit communities.

More options

Administration efforts have helped improve servicer performance in assisting struggling homeowners. While more progress needs to be made, servicers have been focusing attention on areas of need identified through regular compliance and program reviews, with results published in the Administration’s quarterly Servicer Assessments. Since inception of the voluntary Making Home Affordable Program, Treasury has required participating servicers to take specific actions to improve their servicing processes to more effectively assist struggling homeowners. As a result, there are more options for assistance available to struggling homeowners today than have ever been available before.

The Administration’s efforts have helped millions of families deal with the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. More than 5 million mortgage aid arrangements were started between April 2009 and the end of July 2011. While some homeowners may have received help from more than one program, the total number of aid offers is more than double the number of foreclosure completions for the same period (2.2 million). In July, more than 28,000 additional homeowners received a permanent modification through the Administration’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP); more than 790,000 homeowners across the country have now received a HAMP permanent modification with a median payment reduction of 37 percent. To date, homeowners in permanent modifications have realized aggregate savings in monthly mortgage payments of nearly $7.8 billion.

Housing market remains fragile as data through July paint a mixed picture of recovery. Home prices as reported by S&P/Case-Shiller and FHFA were up for the third consecutive month in July after several previous months of decline. Foreclosure starts and completions continued a downward trend, as mortgage aid programs are helping homeowners, although some of the decline remains due to lender processing issues delaying some foreclosure actions. The fragility of the market is underscored by the fact mortgage delinquencies rose slightly in July.

The Servicer Assessments summarize performance for the 10 largest Making Home Affordable participating servicers from reviews largely conducted throughout the second quarter of 2011 on three categories of program implementation: identifying and contacting homeowners; homeowner evaluation and assistance; and program reporting, management and governance. Although some improvements have been made, based on the reviews for this quarter, Bank of America, NA and J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, NA remain in need of substantial improvement. Both servicers were subject to withholding of financial incentives under the program based on results from the first quarter and will continue to have their incentives withheld until their performance improves.

While Ocwen Loan Servicing, LLC and Wells Fargo Bank, NA were both found to be in need of substantial improvement in the first quarter of 2011, compliance activities conducted to follow up on their progress and assess other areas of program implementation found that both mortgage servicers have corrected identified deficiencies from the first quarter. Both servicers were found to be in need of moderate improvement in the second quarter.

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Colorado also ranked No. 12 of the states for its foreclosure rate, one one out of every 665 households in some state of foreclosure in July. That compared with the overall national rate of out of every 611 homes in some state of foreclosure, from the initial filing  until the REO (real estate owned) when the lender obtains the home at a public trustee auction. The Colorado Division of Housing, which uses a different methodology to track foreclosures, released a report today showing a similar trend.

The one measure by which Colorado vastly out-performed the nation was in the monthly percentage drop from June to July. Colorado showed a 25.2 percent drop, compared to a 4.5 percent drop for the entire nation.

National snapshot

Nationally, in July  foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — were reported on 212,764 U.S. properties in July, a 4 percent decrease from June and a 35 percent decrease from July 2010, according to RealtyTrac.

“July foreclosure activity dropped 35 percent from a year ago, marking the 10th straight month of year-over-year decreases in foreclosure activity and the lowest monthly total since November 2007,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “This string of decreases was initially triggered by the robo-signing controversy back in October 2010, which forced lenders to substantially slow the pace of foreclosing, but the downward trend in foreclosure activity has now taken on a life of its own. It appears that the foreclosure processing delays, combined with the smorgasbord of national and state-level foreclosure prevention efforts — including loan modifications, lender-borrower mediations and mortgage payment assistance for the unemployed — may be allowing more distressed homeowners to stave off foreclosure.

“Unfortunately, the falloff in foreclosures is not based on a robust recovery in the housing market but on short-term interventions and delays that will extend the current housing market woes into 2012 and beyond,” Saccacio continued. “A stabilizing economy and improving job market are the long-term keys to a housing market recovery.”

Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com

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The report, which tracked all foreclosure activity from the initial filing until the REO (Real Estate Owned) when the home typically is returned to the bank, also showed that Greeley was ranked No. 17 out of 211 metropolitan statistical areas tracked by the company.

For all of Colorado, foreclosure activity dropped by 14.7 percent from the first half of 2010. However, the overall country showed a 29.3 percent year-over-year decline.

In Colorado, one out of every 84 homes were in some stage of foreclosures, compared with a national average of one out every 111. In Greeley, one out of every 49  homes were in some stage of foreclosure. In the Denver MSA, one out of every 52 housing units were in some stage of forclosure. The Denver MSA includes the counties of Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Clear Creek, Denver, Douglas, Elbert, Gilpin, Jefferson and Park. Adams County had the highest foreclosure rate in the metro area, with one out of every 52 units in some stage of foreclosure, equating to 1.9 percent of the housing inventory. In Denver, one out of every 98 units were in some stage of foreclosure.

National snapshot

In addition to Greeley, others with foreclosure rates among the top 20 included Boise City-Nampa, Idaho, Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, Ga.,  and Salt Lake City.

California, Nevada and Arizona cities accounted for all top 10 metro foreclosure rates and 15 of the top 20 metro foreclosure rates in the first half of the year. Only one Florida metro area posted a foreclosure rate among the top 20 — Cape Coral-Fort Myers at No. 12 — in sharp contrast to the first half of 2010, when Florida cities accounted for nine of the top 20 metro foreclosure rates nationwide.

“Foreclosure activity continued to slow in the first half of 2011, especially in the most foreclosure-saturated markets and in markets where the judicial foreclosure process is used,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “The 20 metro areas with the biggest year-over-year decreases in foreclosure activity were all in states with judicial foreclosure processes — New York, Maryland, Florida, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Illinois.

“These dramatic decreases indicate the foreclosure pipeline continues to be clogged in many local markets across the country, sometimes by a glut of already-foreclosed properties that are not selling quickly, sometimes by a mountain of improperly filed foreclosures that are blocking the inflow of new foreclosure filings — and sometimes by both.”

Top 10 metro foreclosure rates Las Vegas-Paradise continued to post the nation’s highest metro foreclosure rate, with one in every 19 housing units (5.36 percent) receiving a foreclosure filing during the first half of 2011 — nearly six times the national average. A total of 43,944 Las Vegas properties received a foreclosure filing during the six-month period, a decrease of 18 percent from the previous six months and also an 18 percent decrease from the first half of 2010.”

MSA	Half-year foreclosure filings	% of housing units in some stage of foreclosure	1 out of every household unit in some foreclosure	National Rank	% Decline from 1st half of 2010
Boulder	761	0.61	164	120	11.0
Colorado Springs	2,986	1.16	87	64	22.5
Denver-Aurora	13,705	1.29	77	42	19
Fort Collins-Loveland	1,136	0.87	115	79	14.4
Greeley	1,925	2.04	52	17	28.25
Colorado	26,744	1.19	84	9	18.24
U.S.	1.17 million	0.90	111		25.5

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Ryan McMaken of the Colorado Division of Housing.

Total foreclosure activity in Colorado in the first half of the year dropped 14.7 percent from the same period last year, but that still ranked the state No. 9 in foreclosures, according to a national report released today by RealtyTrac.

The U.S. as a whole showed a 28.3 percent drop on a year-over-year basis, according to the California-based company.

In Colorado, it showed 26,744 total foreclosure filings, or one out of every 84 housing units. That compared with one out of every 111 housing units being in some state of foreclosure nationally. RealtyTrac’s methodology covers everything from the first foreclosure notice until it becomes an REO, or Real Estate Owned, when the bank buys it a public trustee auction.

Ryan McMaken, spokesman for the Colorado Division of Housing, early next month will be releasing his own report, using a different methodology than RealtyTrac.

Foreclosures on pace for 20% drop

“My data for the first half of 2011 is incomplete, but if current trends keep up, it looks like Colorado is on track to end 2011 down about 20 percent down from 2010′s totals.,” McMaken said. “This is somewhat due to many lenders’ policy of slowing down foreclosure processing, but that doesn’t appear to be the only reason, since Mortgage Banker Association data also shows fewer loans becoming delinquent in Colorado.”

Indeed, RealtyTrac’s numbers and the MBA’s analysis, seem to paint different pictures of Colorado’s foreclosure standing, compared with other parts of the country.

“As far as the state-to-state comparisons are concerned, the same disparity continues between Realtytrac’s rankings and those published by the MBA,” McMaken said. “In MBA’s data, Colorado ranks about 35th in delinquencies and foreclosure inventory, while in Realtytrac’s data, the state regularly ranks 9th or 10th in foreclosure activity.”

Still, the two national reports show similar trends.

“Realtytrac’s year-over-year changes reflect a similar trend, although to a slightly smaller extent,” McMaken said. “Nevertheless, it’s clear at this point that so far in the year, Colorado’s foreclosure activity is well below what it was last year.”

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Colorado remains on the Top 10 list it has never wanted to be on.

Colorado ranked tenth in May for its foreclosure rate, according to a report released today by RealtyTrac. RealtyTrac, based in Irvine, Calif., found that total foreclosure activity in May fell by 13.6 percent in May from May 2010, less than half of the 33.4 percent year-over-year drop for the entire nation. However, on a consecutive month basis, Colorado showed a greater percentage drop, with the foreclosure rate falling by 4.4 percent, compared with just under a 2 percent drop average drop across the country from April.

RealtyTrac tracked a total of 4,187 Colorado properties in some stage of foreclosure – from the initial notice to the real estate sale at the public trustee public auction – in May. In Colorado, one out of every 518 households were in some stage of foreclosure, compared with one out of every 605 households for the nation.

Ryan McMaken, of the Colorado Division of Housing, who analyzes the state’s foreclosure rate by using a different methodology, noted that Colorado continues to hover around the national rate and its ranking is at No. 10 is about where it has been for a long time.

“It looks like there’s very little change here, actually,” McMaken said. “The conflct between the Mortgage Banker Association’s data and the Realtytrac data continues since the MBA data continues to show Colorado falling behind other states, but the state is holding steady in the Realtytrac rankings. The drop in foreclosures in this report further reinforces almost everything else we’re seeing in Colorado trends right now. However, it’s curious that the year-over-year change in the Realtytrac report is much smaller than our own reported year-year-over changes of 20 and 24 percent for sales and filings, respectively. The month-over-month decline was expected, of course, since May tends to be a lighter month for foreclosure activity.”

National snapshot

Nationally, RealtyTrac found 214,927 properties in some stage of the foreclosure process, including default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions in May.

“Foreclosure processing delays continue to mask the true face of the foreclosure situation, although there were some clues in the May numbers of what lies behind that mask,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “First, activity spiked in May for various stages of the foreclosure process in some states, a pattern that has occurred in several states over the past few months. This pattern provides evidence that lenders are somewhat unevenly pushing batches of bad loans through foreclosure as they overhaul their paperwork and documentation procedures and as they determine that some local markets are able to absorb more foreclosure inventory.

“Second, while the inventory of properties in the foreclosure process has declined steadily over the past six months — thanks in large part to 16 consecutive months of year-over-year declines in new default notices — the inventory of unsold bank-owned REOs increased in April and May even as new REO activity slowed in both of those months,” Saccacio continued. “That points to continued weak demand from buyers, making it tough for lenders to unload their REO inventory. Even at a significantly lower level than a year ago, the new supply of REOs exceeds the amount being sold each month.”

Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com

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The national average was one out of every 593 homes in some stage of foreclosure, from the initial notice to the REO (real estate owned) transaction, when the bank takes possession. On a year-over-year basis, foreclosure activity in Colorado was down 31.4 percent in April, slightly less than the 35.3 percent drop for the entire nation, according to RealtyTrac. The huge drops largely are a reflection of the extra time it is taking lenders to foreclose on properties, rather than a sign the foreclosure crisis is healing, according to Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac.

Colorado’s foreclosure activity was down 8.6 percent from March, compared with the 8.56 percent national month-over-month drop.

Ryan McMaken, spokesman for the Colorado Division of Housing, who plans to release his own April foreclosure report on Tuesday, said that RealtyTrac’s analysis of Colorado seems to capture the market fairly well.

“I find these April numbers for Colorado to be plausible, and the large year-over-year increase further adds to the evidence that foreclosure activity during the first several months of this year continues to be well below the totals during the same period last year,” McMaken said. “The lengthening of the timelines for foreclosures, as mentioned by Realtytrac, does seem to be having an effect in Colorado as well, and is helping to drive down the total number of foreclosures being processed right now.”

Nationally, foreclosure activity is at more than a three-year low.

“Foreclosure activity decreased on an annual basis for the seventh straight month in April, bringing foreclosure activity to a 40-month low,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “This slowdown continues to be largely the result of massive delays in processing foreclosures rather than the result of a housing recovery that is lifting people out of foreclosure.

“The first delay occurs between delinquency and foreclosure, when lenders and services are no longer automatically pushing loans that are more than 90 days delinquent into foreclosure but are waiting longer to allow for loan modifications, short sales and possibly other disposition alternatives,” Saccacio continued. “Data from the Mortgage Bankers Association shows that about 3.7 million properties are in this seriously delinquent stage. The second delay occurs after foreclosure has started, when lenders are taking much longer than they were just a few years ago to complete the foreclosure process.”

Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com

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In the first quarter of 2010, 34,336 Colorado homeowners were pinning their hopes on keeping their homes out of foreclosure through the Obama Administration’s flagship program to help people keep their homes.

In the first quarter of 2011, only 5,017 Colorado homeowners were in the required “Active Trials” portion of the Home Affordable Modification program, better known as HAMP, according to an InsideRealEstateNews analysis of data released today.

That’s a 85.4 percent drop.

Much of the big reduction is by design.

In mid-2010, the Treasury Department advised servicers to pre-screen homeowners entering the program, because such a large percentage of them were not qualifying for permanent modifications, which can lower mortgage rates to as low as 2 percent.

Nationally, borrowers in the permanent program have saved $5.9 billion in lower mortgage payments. Savings by Colorado homeowners equates to an estimated $82.6 million, according to an InsideRealEstateNews calculation.

In March, a record-low 1,597 homeowners in Colorado entered the active trial, a 3.7 percent drop from the previous low in February. However, a record 8,222 homeowners are in the permanent modification program, an increase of  395 people from February.

“Fantastic news”

“That is fantastic news,” said Shannon Peer, Housing Counseling director at Brothers Redevelopment, which is in charge of the Colorado Foreclosure, 1-877-601-HOPE.

Although some politicians and real estate officials have been calling for the elimination of HAMP, or a major overhaul of the program, Peer is not in that camp.

“Especially not with what we are seeing with March numbers,” Peer said. “Helping 400 people keep their homes is incredible. We’ve been noticing that during the last six or eight months, typically the number of people entering the permanent part of the program has been consistently in the 235 to 250 range, so this is a pretty big jump.”

Banks increasingly helping

Beyond that, counselors at Brothers Redevelopment have been noticing that many people turned down by HAMP, have seamlessly been moved into proprietary programs offered by the banks.

“That was always supposed to happen, but the reality was that it was not always the case in the past,” Peer said. “I think the servicers are more efficient in moving people into proprietary programs than they have been in the past.”

The huge drop of people entering the program from a year ago does not bother Peer.

“We anticipated a big drop in the number of people in the active trials,” Peer said. “Now, if you are accepted into the trial period, there is a very strong correlation that you will be accepted into the permanent program.”

Unemployment the culprit

Also, HAMP originally was designed to help people with extremely high mortgage rates that they couldn’t afford.

“Now, of course, the problem is with people who are unemployed or under-employed,” Peer said. “We’re seeing a big increase in servicers moving people into forbearance programs, which buys them time. Many people who are facing losing their homes do eventually find work, and can start making payments again.”

However, no matter how low the mortgage rate, HAMP will not help some people with no or very little income.

“Sometimes is it jus a timing problem, when you’re applying for HAMP,” Peer said.

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