Accelerating bank repos 37% above pre-crisis watermark
There were a total of 597,589 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — in the first half of 2015, down 13% from the previous six months and down 3% from the same time period in 2014, according to RealtyTrac.
A total of 304,439 U.S. properties started the foreclosure process in the first half of the year, down 4% from a year ago and 18% below foreclosure starts in the first half of 2006 before the housing price bubble burst in August 2006. First-half foreclosure starts 2015 were at their lowest level in any year since RealtyTrac began tracking in 2006 — a 10-year low.
“U.S. foreclosure starts have not only returned to pre-housing crisis levels, they have fallen well below those pre-crisis levels and are still searching for a floor, down 4% from a year ago,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. “Loans originated in the last five years continue to perform better than historic norms, with tighter lending standards and more cautious borrower behavior acting as important guardrails for the real estate boom of the past three years.”There were 19 states where foreclosure starts in the first half of 2015 were at or below their pre-crisis levels of 2006, including California, Florida, Arizona, Georgia and Illinois.
“The reduction of foreclosures is adding to the limited inventory in the market as a whole and increased appreciation,” said Greg Smith, owner/broker at RE/MAX Alliance, covering the Denver market in Colorado, where foreclosure starts in the first half of 2015 were less than half the number of foreclosure starts in the first half of 2006. “Today the decline in foreclosures, combined with limited new construction, nominal resale inventory, and delayed entry of millennials in to the buying cycle is contributing to a very robust real estate market for the foreseeable future.”
By Trey Garrison, HousingWire
