Foreclosure filings including default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions, dropped in April to the lowest level since 2005, according to the April 2017 U.S. Foreclosure Market report from ATTOM Data Solutions, a multi-sourced property database.
A reported 77,049 filings were recorded in April, down 7% from March and down a full 23% from April 2016 to the lowest level since November 2005.
“Foreclosure activity continued to search for a new post-recession floor in April thanks in large part to the above-par performance of mortgages originated in the past seven years,” ATTOM senior vice president Daren Blomquist said. “Meanwhile we are seeing an elevated share of repeat foreclosures on homeowners who often fell into default several years ago but have not been able to avoid foreclosure despite the housing recovery.”
Nationwide, one out of every 1,723 housing units had a foreclosure filing in April. However, in some states, that rate was much higher.
New Jersey held the highest number of filings with one out of every 562 housing units, followed by Delaware with one in every 706, Maryland with one in every 776, Connecticut with one in every 956 and Illinois with one in every 1,083.
In fact in New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts foreclosure filings actually increased by 1%, 29% and 3% respectively.
However, a new analysis of repeat foreclosure starts, shows them increasing. A repeat foreclosure start is defined as a foreclosure start filed on a property address-owner last name combination in 2016 with a previous foreclosure start on the same property address-owner combination in the last 10 years.
ATTOM studied five markets with its new analysis, showing the highest share of repeat foreclosures occurred in New York City at 54%, followed by Los Angeles at 39%, Miami-Dade County at 32%, Maricopa County, Arizona at 26% and Essex County, New Jersey at 20%.
A total of 34,085 properties started the foreclosure process in April, down 6% from the previous month and down 22% from last year. This is well below the pre-recession average of 77,000 foreclosure starts from 2005 to 2007.
Completed foreclosures came in at 25,990 for the month, down 9% from March and down 22% from last year to the lowest level since February 2015. This is just above the pre-recession average of 25,796 per month.
