Midyear 2011 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report
RealtyTrac released its Midyear 2011 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, including second quarter and June 2011 numbers, on July 14, and the report shows that nearly 1.2 million U.S. properties received a foreclosure filing in the first half of the year, down 25 percent from the previous six months and down 29 percent from the first half of 2010.
Foreclosure filings were reported on 222,740 U.S. properties in June, an increase of nearly 4 percent from the previous month, but a decrease of 29 percent from June 2010. June was the ninth straight month where foreclosure activity decreased on a year-over-year basis. Default notices, scheduled auctions and REOs were all up on a month-over-month basis but down on a year-over-year basis in June.
Foreclosure filings were reported on 608,235 U.S. properties during the second quarter, a decrease of nearly 11 percent from the first quarter and a decrease of 32 percent from the second quarter of 2010. The second quarter total was the lowest quarterly total since the fourth quarter of 2007. All categories of foreclosure were down both on quarterly basis and annual basis in the second quarter.
“It would be nice to report that foreclosure activity is dropping as a result of improvements in the economy or the housing market,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “Unfortunately, with unemployment rates inching back up, consumer confidence weak and home sales and prices continuing to languish, this doesn’t appear to be the case.
“Processing and procedural delays are pushing foreclosures further and further out – we estimate that as many as 1 million foreclosure actions that should have taken place in 2011 will now happen in 2012, or perhaps even later. This casts an ominous shadow over the housing market, where recovery is unlikely to happen until the current and forthcoming inventory of distressed properties can be whittled down to a manageable number.”
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