Decline seen in foreclosure activity

Foreclosures nationwide remain problematic, but the number of foreclosures and pre-foreclosures declined in October, according to ForeclosureS.com.

“These latest foreclosure numbers are great news because pre-foreclosures are early signals of what’s to come,” said Alexis McGee, real estate expert, educator, president of ForeclosureS.com, in a statement. “The nation’s foreclosure free-fall may be subsiding. We still have a long way to go, and some of the recent numbers are skewed by lender programs for homeowners that delay rather than eliminate foreclosures. But gains as measured by drops in foreclosure numbers in the past two months reflect that efforts by lenders, banks, organizations, and government entities to work with strapped homeowners to avoid foreclosure are beginning to pay off.”

Details from Monday’s (Nov. 10) report from ForeclosureS.com include:
• October pre-foreclosure filings — which can include notice of default and/or foreclosure auction — were off more than 10 percent from August’s highs, and nearly 7 percent from September’s numbers.

• Properties repossessed by lenders following foreclosure or REOs (bank-owned real estate) were down 22 percent in October from September’s high to just 84,286 properties.
Almost one-third of the 1.76 million pre-foreclosure filings so far this year are in 10 counties out of the more than 1,300 nationwide included in the ForeclosureS.com database. Those counties include: Maricopa County, Ariz.; Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties in Calif.; Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, and Lee counties in Fla.; Clark County, Nev., and Cook County, Ill.

• More than 255,000 of the 828,670 completed foreclosures this year to date are in 10 counties, too, U.S. Foreclosure Index analysis shows. Those counties include Maricopa County, Ariz.; Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, Sacramento, and San Diego counties in Calif.; Clark County, Nev. (including Las Vegas); Wayne County, Mich. (including Detroit); Harris County, Texas (including Houston), and Cook County, Ill. (Chicago).

• 11.5 out of every 1,000 households nationwide have been repossessed by lenders following foreclosure YTD based on REO filings. That’s up 71.64% from the same time a year ago.

• 24.6 of every 1,000 have had to deal with pre-foreclosure filings YTD, up 71.53% from 2007 YTD.

(ForeclosureS.com bases its U.S. Foreclosure Index and analysis of pre-foreclosure and foreclosure proceedings nationwide on the number of formal notices filed against a property during the foreclosure process.)