RealtyTrac, an online marketplace for foreclosure properties, released its U.S. Foreclosure Market Report for August 2011, which shows foreclosure filings—default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions—were reported on 228,098 U.S. properties in August, a 7 percent increase from the previous month, but still down nearly 33 percent from August 2010. The report also shows one in every 570 U.S. housing units with a foreclosure filing during the month.
Default notices were filed for the first time on a total of 78,880 U.S. properties in August, a nine-month high and a 33 percent increase from July—the biggest month-over-month increase since August 2007. Despite the monthly increase, default notices were still down 18 percent from August 2010 and were 44 percent below the monthly peak of 142,064 default notices in April 2009.
Default notices increased more than 40 percent on a month-over-month basis in several states, including New Jersey (42 percent), Indiana (46 percent) and California (55 percent), but were still down from a year ago in all of those states.
“The big increase in new foreclosure actions may be a signal that lenders are starting to push through some of the foreclosures delayed by robo-signing and other documentation problems,” said James Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “It also foreshadows more bank repossessions in the coming months as these new foreclosures make their way through the process.”
Foreclosure auctions were scheduled for 84,405 U.S. properties in August, a decrease of 1 percent from the previous month and a decrease of 43 percent from August 2010. Foreclosure auctions hit a 37-month low in August and were 47 percent below the monthly peak of 158,105 scheduled auctions in March 2010.
Despite the nationwide decrease, scheduled auctions were up substantially from the previous month in several states where the auction notice is the first public notice in the foreclosure process: Oregon (19 percent), Arizona (20 percent), Georgia (22 percent), and Colorado (51 percent). Scheduled auctions were still down from a year ago in all of those states.
Lenders repossessed a total of 64,813 U.S. properties in August, a 4 percent decrease from the previous month and a 32 percent decrease from August 2010. The REO total in August marked a six-month low and was 37 percent below the monthly peak of 102,134 bank repossessions in September 2010.
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