April 2011 U.S. Foreclosure Heat Map
RealtyTrac released its April 2011 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report today, and it shows that foreclosures decreased annually for the seventh straight month in April, which had the lowest foreclosure activity total since December 2007.
RealtyTrac CEO James J. Saccacio believes the decreases are largely due to foreclosure processing delays rather than a recovering housing market.
“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," he said. “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.”
RealtyTrac Senior Vice President Rick Sharga explains further in this video recapping the April foreclosure report.
Here's a heat map showing the distribution of foreclosure activity by county nationwide.
