Foreclosure Activity Drops 2%: RealtyTrac

Foreclosure filings issued to U.S. homeowners have fallen for the second straight month. According to new data released by ""RealtyTrac"":http://www.realtytrac.com Thursday, default notices, scheduled auctions, and bank repossessions were reported[IMAGE]on 308,524 properties in February, or one in every 418 homes. That's a 2 percent decrease from January, when foreclosure activity dropped by 10 percent.

But RealtyTrac's CEO James J. Saccacio cautions against reading too much into the brief reprieve. ""This leveling of the foreclosure trend is not necessarily evidence that fewer homeowners are in distress and at risk for foreclosure,"" Saccacio said, ""but rather that foreclosure prevention programs, legislation, and other processing delays are in effect capping monthly foreclosure activity - albeit at a historically high level that will likely continue for an extended period.""

February's numbers are still 6 percent above the level reported one year earlier. But while it marked the 50th consecutive month of year-over-year increases in foreclosure activity, Saccacio said it's the smallest annual increase his company has seen since January 2006.

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According to RealtyTrac's ""February 2010 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report"":http://www.realtytrac.com/contentmanagement/pressrelease.aspx?channelid=9&itemid=8695, 78,683 properties became REOs during the month, a 10 percent decrease from the previous month. Bank repossessions were down nearly 15 percent from their peak of more than 92,000 in December 2009.

Looking at RealtyTrac's rundown of the states with the highest foreclosure rates in the nation, the same usual suspects sat at the top of the list. For the 38th month in a row, Nevada ranked the highest, despite a 7 percent decrease in activity for the month and a 30 percent drop compared to February 2009. One in every 102 Nevada housing units received a foreclosure filing in February - still more than four times the national average.

Arizona and Florida documented nearly identical foreclosure rates, with one in every 163 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing in both states. Despite a nearly 21 percent decrease in foreclosure activity from the previous month, Arizona's rate was statistically slightly higher than Florida's rate and ranked second highest among the states.

California came in at No. 4, with one in every 195 homes in the state in some stage of foreclosure last month. Michigan's foreclosure rate ranked fifth highest, with one in every 226 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing.

Other states with foreclosure rates among the nation's 10 highest were Utah (one in every 275 housing units), Idaho (one in 296), Illinois (one in 305), Georgia (one in 331) and Maryland (one in 407).

Metro areas in the Sun Belt states of Nevada, Florida, California, and Arizona continued to dominate the top 10 highest metropolitan foreclosure rates, with Las Vegas taking the top spot.