Regional foreclosure actions dip in February

February foreclosure actions were down 14.1% in the four Arkansas counties in the Fort Smith region when compared to February 2008. Crawford, Franklin, Logan and Sebastian counties collectively had 97 properties in some form of foreclosure action in February, down from the 133 in February 2008.

Arkansas had 1,616 properties in some form of foreclosure in February, up 6.6% over January and up more than 16% over February 2008, according to Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac.

February figures from the top four counties in terms of population:
Benton County: 339 foreclosure actions, or one of every 250 housing units
Pulaski County: 295 foreclosure actions, or one of every 591 housing units
Washington County: 295, or one of every 277 housing units
Sebastian County: 62, or one of every 852 housing units

Fort Smith/Van Buren regional foreclosure figures (info provided by RealtyTrac):
Sebastian County
February 2009: 62
February 2008: 77
January 2009: 36

Crawford County
February 2009: 27
February 2008: 29
January 2009: 35

Logan County
February 2009: 5
February 2008: 4
January 2009: 6

Franklin County
February 2009: 3
February 2008: 3
January 2009: 2

The number of properties facing foreclosure action during 2008 in the Fort Smith metro area (Crawford, Franklin, Logan and Sebastian counties in Arkansas; Le Flore and Sequoyah counties in Oklahoma) was 1,084, up 84% over the 588 regional properties in 2007.

Nationwide, RealtryTrac found foreclosure action on 290,631 U.S. properties during February, an increase of nearly 6% from the previous month and an increase of nearly 30% from February 2008.

“The increase in foreclosure activity from January to February is somewhat surprising, given that many of the foreclosure prevention efforts and moratoria in place in January were extended through most of February as well,” said James J. Saccacio, CEO of RealtyTrac.

Arkansas ranked 18th in the country based on the number of foreclosures per housing units. Arkansas had one property in foreclosure activity per 797 housing units. Nevada ranked first with one property in foreclosure for every 70 housing units, and Nebraska ranked 50th with a ratio of one foreclosure for every 60,062 housing units.