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.

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Source: Colorado Division of Housing

Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com or 303-945-6865.

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One out of every 36 households in the Denver area received some kind of foreclosure notice last year, according to RealtyTrac’s Year-End 2009 Metropolitan Foreclosure Market Report released today. That compares to one out of 45 households nationally.

While foreclosures across the U.S. were up 21.2 percent from, they were down about 12 percent in the Denver area, according to RealyTrac.

The Greeley area was ranked No. 29, with one out of 24 households receiving a foreclosure notice, up 6.5 percent from 2008. Colorado Springs was No. 50, with one of 39 households in foreclosure, an 11 percent increase from 2008. Fort Collins-Loveland was No. 70, with one out of 50 households in foreclosure, 19.7% higher than in 2008, and Boulder was ranked 115th, with one out 77 households in foreclosure, a 28 percent jump  from 2008.

Ryan McMaken, of the Colorado Division of Housing, who plans to release his own statewide-foreclosure report next Thursday, today said the RealtyTrac numbers seem to capture what is happening in Colorado. However, he said because of RealtyTrac’s methodology of combining all foreclosure actions and treating them as one number, its data will differ for his. McMaken tracks  initial filings and public trustee sales, separately, for example, while RealtyTrac combines them, along with REOs, which are homes taken back by banks.

“In much of  Colorado – especially in the Denver area – foreclosure activity peaked a couple of years ago, while now other parts of the country foreclosure rates are growing,” McMaken said. “The general trend of their report seems accurate. Of course, our reports will differ as far as actual numbers.”

Nationwide, the report shows that cities in four Sun Belt states accounted for all top 20 foreclosure rates in 2009 among metro areas with a population of 200,000 or more, but foreclosure activity showed signs of spreading into previously insulated areas asunemployment became more of a driving factor.

California accounted for nine of the top 20 metro foreclosure rates, followed by Florida with eight, Nevada with two and Arizona with one. The highest-ranked metro area outside of those four states was in Boise City-Nampa, Idaho, which ranked No. 24 with 4.66 percent of its housing units receiving at least one foreclosure notice in 2009.

“While it was expected that cities from states with the highest levels of foreclosure activity would top the charts, there is evidence that we’re entering a new wave of foreclosures, driven more by unemployment and economic hardship than what we’ve seen over the past few years,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “Areas like Provo, Utah,Fayetteville, Ark., Portland, Ore., and Rockford, Ill., all posted foreclosure rates above the U.S. average in 2009. And markets like Honolulu, Minneapolis and Seattle saw foreclosure activity increase at more than twice the national pace over the past 12 months — although all three of those markets still had 2009 foreclosure rates that were at or below the U.S. average.”

Las Vegas posted the nation’s highest metro foreclosure rate for the year, with more than 12 percent of its housing units receiving a foreclosure notice in 2009 — more than five times the national average. Las Vegas reported a quarter-over-quarter decline in foreclosure activity in the fourth quarter — as did all the other metro areas with foreclosure rates ranking among the top 10 for 2009.

With 11.87 percent of its housing units receiving a foreclosure notice in 2009, Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., documented the second highest metro foreclosure rate. Other Florida cities in the top 10 were Orlando-Kissimmee at No. 7 (8.17 percent), Port St. Lucie at No. 9 (7.58percent), and Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach at No. 10 (7.16 percent).Merced, Calif., registered the nation’s third highest metro foreclosure rate, with more than 10 percent of its housing units receiving a foreclosure notice in 2009. Other California cities in the top 10 were Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario at No. 4 (8.80 percent), Stockton at No. 5 (8.62 percent), and Modesto at No. 6 (8.53 percent).

The Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale metro area in Arizona documented the nation’s eighth highest metro foreclosure rate in 2009, with more than 8 percent of its housing units receiving a foreclosure notice during the year.

Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com or 303-945-6865.

Related Posts:

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• RealtyTrac: Colorado 9th for foreclosures
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