Nearly 93,000 Bank Owned Homes Added to Lists in July

Published by nora | Filed under Buyer / Seller Tips, Market Trends, Miscellaneous, Real Estate

A total of 92,858 residential units across the U.S. became bank owned homes in July, according to the latest report released by RealtyTrac. The total marked an increase of 9 percent over the month and a rise of 6 percent over the year.

Data from the report showed that mortgage lenders slowed down on filing new foreclosure actions, and instead stepped up the foreclosure of homes that have been in the foreclosure queue for a long time.

While the number of bank repossessions increased in July both over the year and over the month, the number of default notices decreased sharply by 28 percent over the year and dropped by 32 percent from the highest total which was reached in April last year. Notices of foreclosure auctions also decreased by two percent over the year and fell by 14 percent from the highest total which was reached in March this year. Over the month, the number of default notices and foreclosure sale notices increased, but the rates were low at one percent and two percent, respectively.

Altogether, the total number of U.S. homes that received default or foreclosure notices in July was 325,229, a number still higher than the previous month’s total, although it was an improvement from the total in July last year. The month-over-month increase was almost 4 percent and the year-over-year decrease was almost 10 percent. According to the research firm, July was the 17th month in a row that foreclosure filings surpassed the 300,000 threshold. It was also the eighth straight month that the number of bank owned homes increased over the year. The good news was that it was the sixth consecutive month that the number of default notices dropped on a year-over-year basis.    

Despite a dramatic plunge rate of 38.11 percent over the year, California continued to top all other states in foreclosure filings, posting a total of 66,910 and comprising 21 percent of all filings nationwide in July. Florida was second with a total of 51,557 filings, comprising 16 percent of all filings in the country, despite a decrease rate of 8.73 percent.

Similarly, Nevada was still the leading state in terms of foreclosure rate, with one foreclosure filing for every 82 homes in the state. Arizona was second in foreclosure rate, but its rate of one in 167 was far lower than that of Nevada. All the four states leading in foreclosure rates posted significant decreases in filings year-over-year in July, but these improvements were wiped out by increases over the month, except in the case of California whose filings also dropped over the month.

In the ten metro areas with the highest rates of foreclosure, filings also decreased over the year, but five of them posted substantial month-over-month increases, including the Cape Coral-Fort Myers and Phoenix-Mesa areas.

As shown in all foreclosure sales, although bank owned homes mean losses for homeowners, they mean golden opportunities for home ownership and investment for other people.