Tag Archives: RealtyTrac

Foreclosure activity increased 3 percent in January, but is still down 10 percent compared to a year earlier, according to data released by RealtyTrac Thursday. Foreclosure activity includes default notices, scheduled auctions, and bank repossessions. Nationwide, one in every 624 housing units had a foreclosure filing last month. The number of properties taken back as REO in January totaled 66,542, with the biggest year-over-year increases in repossessions recorded in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Indiana.

Foreclosure homes sold for 34 percent less than the average price of a non-distressed home during the third quarter of 2011, according to new data released by RealtyTrac Thursday. The average sales price of homes in the process of foreclosure or bank-owned was $165,322 over the July-to-September period last year. RealtyTrac says third parties purchased a total of 221,536 residential properties classified as foreclosures or REO during the third quarter of 2011, representing just 20 percent of all residential sales during that timeframe.

With Atlanta as the exception, all of the metro areas on RealtyTrac's top 20 list for foreclosure rates in 2011 demonstrated declines in foreclosure activity from both of the previous two years. Foreclosure filings in the Atlanta area in 2011 were 2 percent higher than in 2009. Half of the metros in RealtyTrac's list of top 20 foreclosure rates for 2011 were located in California. Las Vegas had the highest foreclosure rate last year among metro areas with populations of at least 200,000.

RealtyTrac's year-end report released Thursday shows foreclosure filings - including default, auction, and bank repossession notices - were reported on 1,887,777 U.S. properties in 2011. Of that total, 804,423 homes were taken back by lenders as REO. Last year's tally of nearly 1.9 million properties with a foreclosure filing seems staggering, but it's actually the lowest reported since 2007. It's 34 percent below 2010, 33 percent below 2009, and 19 percent below the 2008 total.

Florida's mandatory foreclosure mediation program has come to an end. State Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles Canady issued an order this week stating that no new cases may be referred to mediators as part of the court-run initiative and citing the program's lack of success in resolving foreclosure disputes between lenders and borrowers. Data released earlier this year showed that only 4 percent of eligible mediation cases ended in a settlement.

Foreclosure activity slipped 3 percent in November when compared to the previous month, but filings at various stages of the process showed starkly different movements, according to RealtyTrac's latest market report. Scheduled auctions hit a nine-month high following the default surge that began in August. At the same time, RealtyTrac says REO activity is at a 44-month low. Total filings are down by double-digits from a year ago, but RealtyTrac doesn't view the numbers as the making of a trend.

RealtyTrac said Monday that it has obtained a substantial capital investment from Renovo Capital LLC through the private equity firm's Renwood Opportunities Fund. According to RealtyTrac, Renovo's investment provides the capital necessary to fund growth and foster expansion into untapped areas of the market. RealtyTrac also announced changes at the top of its management team. Brandon Moore has been hired to take over as CEO, and co-founder James J. Saccacio will move into an executive advisor role.

Foreclosure filings in October rose 7 percent from the previous month, RealtyTrac said Thursday. Including default notices, scheduled auctions, and bank repossessions, filings were reported on 230,678 U.S. properties in October. That's down nearly 31 percent from a year earlier, when servicers began putting the brakes on foreclosure actions due to paperwork issues. But RealtyTrac has documented a rise in filings for three consecutive months now - a sign that servicers are working through the backlog of cases that have been delayed.

Short sales are growing throughout the nation as distressed homeowners and servicers continue to seek alternatives to foreclosure and home buyers increasingly opt for the significant discounts that come with short sales. With 9,145 completed short sales, the Los Angeles area had more short sale transactions than any other metropolitan statistical area (MSA) in the second quarter of this year, according to a recent blog post from RealtyTrac. These short sales came with an average discount of 32 percent and at an average price of $350,237.

RealtyTrac says foreclosure filings were reported on 610,337 properties in the third quarter of this year. That translates to one in every 213 homes with a filing during the three-month period. The third-quarter tally represents an increase of less than 1 percent from the previous quarter, but it breaks a trend of three consecutive quarterly declines that started late last year. RealtyTrac says it looks as though foreclosure activity is about to do an about-face from the falloff that set in after the robo-signing controversy.