Foreclosures coming back to market

In September there were 572 households in Arkansas facing possible foreclosure, according RealtyTrac. Filings were up 12.82% from the year-ago period as the backlog in the pipeline continues to trickle forward.

Northwest Arkansas saw less filings from a year ago, while Fort Smith metro area delinquencies increased sharply in the same period – yet another contradiction between the neighboring metro areas.

Benton County reported 92 filings last month down 19.3% from September 2011. Likewise in Washington County mortgage delinquencies totaled 50, which was a 72.5% decrease from a year ago.

South of the Bobby Hopper Tunnel, Crawford County reported 13 foreclosure filings last month, up 225% from the 4 reported a year ago. Sebastian County also saw more delinquencies in September. There were 24 filings, up 166% from the 9 reported in the same period last year.

Arkansas was one of 15 states that saw the average time to foreclose decrease from a year ago. It took just 199 days on average to foreclose on a home in Arkansas in the third quarter, the fastest pace in the nation, according to RealtyTrac.

U.S. properties foreclosed in the third quarter took an average of 382 days to complete the foreclosure process, up from 336 days in the third quarter of 2011. It was the highest average number of days to foreclose going back to the first quarter of 2007.

New York documented the longest state foreclosure timeline in the third quarter at 1,072 days.

“We’ve been waiting for the other foreclosure shoe to drop since late 2010, when questionable foreclosure practices slowed activity to a crawl in many areas, but that other shoe is instead being carefully lowered to the floor and therefore making little noise in the housing market — at least at a national level,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. “Make no mistake, however, the other shoe is dropping quite loudly in certain states, primarily those where foreclosure activity was held back the most last year."