Last week, RealtyTrac released their Year-End 2012 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report™. The report revealed foreclosure trends over the past few years. Here are a few of the key findings:
- A total of 2,304,941 foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — were reported on 1,836,634 U.S. properties in 2012, down 3 percent from 2011 and down 36 percent from the peak of 2.9 million properties with foreclosure filings in 2010.
- 1.39 percent of U.S. housing units (one in every 72) had at least one foreclosure filing during the year, down from 1.45 percent of housing units in 2011 and down from 2.23 percent of housing units in 2010.
- Foreclosure activity in 2012 increased from 2011 in 25 states — 20 of which primarily use the longer judicial foreclosure process — including New Jersey (55 percent increase), Florida (53 percent increase), Connecticut (48 percent increase), Indiana (46 percent increase), Illinois (33 percent increase) and New York (31 percent increase).
- Foreclosure activity in 2012 decreased from 2011 in 25 states — 19 of which primarily use the more streamlined non-judicial foreclosure process — including Nevada (57 percent decrease), Utah (40 percent decrease), Oregon (40 percent decrease), Arizona (33 percent decrease), California (25 percent decrease) and Michigan (23 percent decrease).
- Florida posted the nation’s highest state foreclosure rate in 2012, with 3.11 percent of housing units (one in 32) receiving a foreclosure filing during the year. Other states with top 5 foreclosure rates were Nevada (2.70 percent), Arizona (2.69 percent), Georgia (2.58 percent), and Illinois (2.58 percent).
As we can see, different markets are impacted in vastly different ways.
