Tag Archives: RealtyTrac

RealtyTrac has announced the hiring of Brian C. Walby as VP of sales and strategic alliances. In this role, Walby will focus on member subscription sales, advertising sales, lead generation programs, and product sales. Walby brings more than 15 years of sales experience to RealtyTrac. He has managed sales organizations in both the private and public sector, with sales revenue responsibilities in excess of $80 million.

RealtyTrac has released its January foreclosure market report. The tracking company's analysis shows that foreclosure filings were reported on 261,333 U.S. properties in January. The tally represents a 1 percent increase from the previous month but a 17 percent decrease from January 2010. It marks the third consecutive month that filings have come in below 300,000, following 20 straight months where the total exceeded that threshold. REO activity was the only area where filings increased on a month-to-month basis.

RealtyTrac has released its 2010 foreclosure tallies for the nation's largest metropolitan areas. The tracking firm found that foreclosure activity increased from 2009 in 149 of the 206 metros with a population of 200,000 or more. Interestingly enough, the metro areas with the 10 highest foreclosure rates all posted decreasing activity from 2009, but RealtyTrac says foreclosures became more widespread last year as high unemployment drove activity up in parts of the country that had been relatively insulated from the initial foreclosure tsunami.

Lenders repossessed 1,050,500 homes last year, according to the 2010 end-of-year foreclosure report from RealtyTrac. The annual figure marks a record-high number of new bank-owned properties tracked by the company. The 2010 tally is up 14 percent from the previous year, when banks seized 918,376 homes. While the number of homes taken back by lenders jumped by more than 130,000 from 2009 to 2010, RealtyTrac's data show the number of default filings declined by 20 percent over the same period.

Data from RealtyTrac shows that foreclosure activity last month fell to a level not seen since November 2008, after problems with paperwork prompted case reviews, foreclosure suspensions, and re-filings of affidavits by mortgage servicers. Foreclosure filings nationwide dropped 21 percent from the previous month and 14 percent from a year earlier. For the first time since February 2009, RealtyTrac says the total number of filings for the month dropped below 300,000.

Americans continue to grapple with uncertainty about the housing market, with 58 percent of U.S. adults expecting recovery to be at least another two years away. Rick Sharga of RealtyTrac and Pete Flint of Trulia are of the same mind as consumers. They peg the housing recovery to begin taking shape between 2013 and 2014. The robo-signing debacle has left most consumers mired in distrust of banks and the government. The industry experts say its effect on REO sales will be minimal, but the impact on consumer confidence could be especially damaging.

New data released by RealtyTrac Thursday shows that distressed homes - including those in default, scheduled for foreclosure auction, and REO - accounted for 25 percent of all U.S. residential sales during the third quarter. These properties sold at an average of 32 percent below the price of their non-distressed counterparts. The company tracked 113,933 REO sales during the July to September period and 74,815 pre-foreclosure, typically short sale, transactions.

Foreclosure filings were reported on 332,172 properties during the month of October, according to data released by RealtyTrac Thursday. That tally represents a 4 percent decrease from the previous month. RealtyTrac says the numbers probably would have been higher except for the fallout from the recent robo-signing controversy, which may result in further declines in November. Lenders seized 9 percent fewer homes last month than they did in September, before foreclosures were frozen in certain states.

Data released by RealtyTrac Thursday shows that foreclosure activity rose in 65 percent of the nation's major metropolitan areas during the third quarter. Cities in California, Florida, Nevada, and Arizona once again claimed the nation's highest foreclosure rates, accounting for 19 of the 20 metros at the top of RealtyTrac's list. The only exception was Boise City-Nampa, Idaho. However, the largest increases in foreclosure filings were reported from Seattle, Chicago, and Houston.

New data from RealtyTrac shows that foreclosure filings were reported on 930,437 properties in the third quarter, a 4 percent increase from the previous three-month period. Both bank repossessions and scheduled auctions set quarterly records. RealtyTrac's latest report puts the impact of recent foreclosure freezes into perspective. The company found that foreclosure activity in the judicial states most affected by paperwork problems accounted for 40 percent of all filings in the third quarter and 36 percent of REOs.