Area foreclosure activity up 23% in November

The number of Fort Smith regional properties in a process of foreclosure was up 23% in November and is up more than 17% for the first 11 months of the year.

Nationwide, foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — were reported on 262,339 properties in November, down 21% compared to October and down 14% compared to November 2009. One in every 492 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing during the month.

The report from Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac shows that 176 properties in the Fort Smith region (Crawford, Franklin, Logan and Sebastian counties in Arkansas; LeFlore and Sequoyah counties in Oklahoma) were placed in a foreclosure action during November, up 23% compared to the 143 properties in the 2009 period.

Crawford County ranked fifth among Arkansas’ 75 counties in terms of foreclosure actions per household (1 for every 502).

November foreclosure actions in Arkansas totaled 1,621, up 3.1% compared to November 2009. In Oklahoma, foreclosure actions in November totaled 1,882, up 27.4% compared to November 2009.

“Foreclosure activity decreased dramatically in November, with fewer than 300,000 properties receiving a foreclosure notice for the first time since February 2009,” said RealtyTrac CEO James Saccacio said in a statement. “While part of the decrease can be attributed to a seasonal drop of 7 to 10 percent that typically occurs in November, fallout from the foreclosure robo-signing controversy forced lenders and servicers to hit the pause button on many foreclosures while they scrambled to revamp their internal procedures and revise or resubmit questionable paperwork.”

Sebastian County saw a 23.37% increase with 95 foreclosure properties compared to 77 in November 2009. Crawford County had a 23.6% increase with 47 foreclosure properties in November, and LeFlore County posted a 13% decrease in November with just 20 properties in a foreclosure process.

However, 1,653 Fort Smith regional properties were in a foreclosure action in the first 11 months of 2010, up 17.1% compared to the 1,411 in the same period of 2009.

Foreclosure action in 2010 continues an unfortunate trend that has seen a rapidly rising number of foreclosure actions in the region. In the Fort Smith metro area, there were 1,335 properties in a foreclosure action in 2009, compared to 1,084 in 2008 and just 588 in 2007.

Northwest Arkansas continues to be the most active for foreclosure actions.

Benton County had 315 properties in the foreclosure process during November, down from the 339 in November 2009, but enough for the county to be ranked first in Arkansas in terms of foreclosure actions per household (1 for every 275).

Washington County was second in the state with 1 property in foreclosure for every 356 households. The county had 235 properties in the foreclosure process during November, down from 318 in November 2009.

Banks and other financial companies foreclosed on 67,428 U.S. properties in November, down 28% from the previous month and down 12% from November 2009. Bank repossessions (REOs) decreased month-over-month in 37 states and the District of Columbia. November’s REO total was the lowest since May 2009, but November’s numbers pushed the year-to-date 2010 REO total to more than 980,000 — already above the record year-end total for 2009.

FORT SMITH AREA FIGURES (Properties in the foreclosure process)
Crawford County
Nov. 2010: 47
Nov. 2009: 38

Franklin County
Nov. 2010: 6
Nov. 2009: 3

Logan County
Nov. 2010: 4
Nov. 2009: 2

Sebastian County
Nov. 2010: 95
Nov. 2009: 77

Leflore County
Nov. 2010: 20
Nov. 2009: 23

Sequoyah County
Nov. 2010: 4
Nov. 2009: 0

MOST FILINGS PER HOUSEHOLDS (Top 5 Arkansas counties)
Benton County
Nov. 2010: 315
Nov. 2009: 339
1 filing per 275 households

Washington County
Nov. 2010: 235
Nov. 2009: 318
1 filing per 356 households

Lonoke County
Nov. 2010: 67
Nov. 2009: 47
1 filing per 386 households

Garland County
Nov. 2010: 101
Nov. 2009: 38
1 filing per 466 households

Crawford County
Nov. 2010: 47
Nov. 2009: 38
1 filing per 502 households