July 14, 2011 (Jeff Alan)

Foreclosure activity for the first six months of 2011 was down 29 percent from the same period last year according to the Midyear Foreclosure Market Report released by RealtyTrac.

A total of 1,170,402 U.S. properties received foreclosure filings, either default notices, auction sale notes, or bank repossessions, in the first half of 2011, which also represented a decrease of 25 percent from the previous six month period of July to December 2010.

Foreclosure filings in the second quarter of 2011 were nearly 11 percent less than the first quarter of 2011 despite a 4 percent increase in foreclosure filings from May to June.

Although the reduction in foreclosure filings would normally be a welcome development, the reality is, the reduction in foreclosure filings is a result of the processing and procedural delays caused by last years “robo-signing” controversy and the delays have just prolonged the foreclosure wave.

RealtyTrac estimates that as many as one million additional foreclosure filings that should have taken in place in 2011 will now be delayed until 2012, or perhaps even later, and that a housing market recovery is unlikely to happen until the current and forthcoming inventory of distressed properties dwindles down to a manageable inventory.

Nevada, Arizona, and California maintained the top three spots with the highest foreclosure rates for the first six months of the year. Nevada led the pack with one in 21 (4.76 percent) housing units receiving at least one foreclosure filing. Arizona was second with one in 26 (2.82 percent) and California was third with one in 51 (1.96 percent) housing units receiving a foreclosure filing in the first half of the year.

Rounding out the top ten in foreclosure rates were Utah (1.65 percent), Georgia (1.50 percent), Idaho (1.49 percent), Michigan (1.34 percent), Florida (1.28 percent), Colorado (1.19 percent), and Illinois (1.15 percent).

In sheer numbers, California had the most foreclosure filings with 263,500 properties receiving a foreclosure filing in the first six months of the year, followed by Florida (113,641), Arizona (77,535), Michigan (61,005), Georgia (60,870), Illinois (60,636), Texas (55,442), Nevada (53,217), Ohio (44,419), and Colorado (25,744).

States that utilize judicial foreclosure proceedings continued to take the longest to foreclose on a property with New York taking the longest at 966 days on average to foreclose, followed by New Jersey at 944 days and Florida at 676 days.

Texas took the shortest amount of time to foreclose at 92 days with Virginia being the next shortest at 106 days.

Tags: RealtyTrac, foreclosures activity, foreclosure filings, default notices, auction sale notes, and bank repossessions, robo-signing

Source:
RealtyTrac