[IMGCAP(1)]
IRVINE, CA-There were a total of 30,226 bank repossessions of US residential properties in January, down 4% from the previous month and down 40% from January 2013, reports RealtyTrac. The firm says REO levels were at their lowest last month since 2007, marking a 78-month low.
As GlobeSt.com reported earlier this week, national residential foreclosure activity spiked upward by 8% in January, driven by double-digit percentage increases in foreclosure starts and scheduled foreclosure auctions, according to RealtyTrac. The firm reports that foreclosure filings were reported on 124,419 US residential properties last month, but while this is a climb from the previous month, foreclosure activity is still down 18% from a year ago.
Regarding the dichotomy between foreclosures and REOs nationwide, Daren Blomquist, VP of RealtyTrac, tells GlobeSt.com, "There are a couple of reasons for the disparate trends in foreclosure starts and auctions compared to the trends in REOs. First, some big states are just now seeing lenders catch up with a backlog of delayed foreclosure starts, most significantly California coming off the delays caused by the homeowners' bill of rights last year. We would expect those foreclosure starts to translate into more REOs down the road later this year or early next year. Secondly, the recent influx of large institutional investors often looking to buy with cash means that it's more likely a foreclosure property will sell at the foreclosure auction (which requires cash) to a third-party investor rather than going back to the bank as an REO."
There were 12 states that posted annual increases in REO activity in January, including New York, Oklahoma, Connecticut, New Jersey and Maryland. New Jersey and Maryland were also two of the states with the highest foreclosure rates in January, along with Florida, Nevada and Illinois, according to RealtyTrac. Among the nation's 20 most-populated metropolitan statistical areas, the highest foreclosure rates were in Miami, Tampa, Chicago, Baltimore and Riverside-San Bernardino in Southern California. Only four of the 20 largest metro areas posted annual increases in foreclosure activity: Baltimore, New York, Washington, DC and Philadelphia.
[IMGCAP(2)]
© Touchpoint Markets, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more inforrmation visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
Carrie Rossenfeld
Carrie Rossenfeld is a reporter for the San Diego and Orange County markets on GlobeSt.com and a contributor to Real Estate Forum. She was a trade-magazine and newsletter editor in New York City before moving to Southern California to become a freelance writer and editor for magazines, books and websites. Rossenfeld has written extensively on topics including commercial real estate, running a medical practice, intellectual-property licensing and giftware. She has edited books about profiting from real estate and has ghostwritten a book about starting a home-based business.
