There's more evidence that the worst of the foreclosure problem is over. Foreclosure filings in November dropped to their lowest level since December 2006, according to RealtyTrac.
Foreclosure filings include default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions. There were approximately 181,000 foreclosure filings in November and that number is down 19 percent from a year ago and down 3 percent from the October.
RealtyTrac says November's decline in foreclosures marks the 26th consecutive month for annual decreases in foreclosure activity. But we aren't out of the woods yet.
Substantial foreclosure declines in California, Georgia, Michigan, Texas and Arizona helped push down the national foreclosure number. But foreclosure activity over the past year increased in 23 states and the District of Columbia.
Nine states posted 12-month highs in foreclosure activity in November, including Florida, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and South Carolina.
Florida posted the nation's highest state foreclosure rate for the third month in a row. One in every 304 housing units in Florida had a foreclosure filing in November, according to RealtyTrac.
Florida was followed by Nevada, Illinois, California and South Carolina as the states with the highest foreclosure rates.
Many Florida cities also revealed the highest metro level foreclosure rates. Seven of the top 10 metro foreclosure rates were in the Sunshine State.
In the Palm Bay-Melbourne area, one in every 158 housing units had a foreclosure filing in November. That's more than four times the national average.
RealtyTrac vice president Daren Blomquist says foreclosures will be with us for a while yet, because lenders are still adjusting to new foreclosure ground rules. New foreclosure rules include those set by the National Mortgage Settlement, federal and state laws, as well as a host of court rulings.
For example, in November, bank repossessions or REOs increased annually for the first time since October 2010. In October 2010, federal regulators were just learning about robo-signing foreclosure documents.
Robo-signing, a practice of using forged signatures on foreclosure documents, helped speed up foreclosures. When regulators put an end robo-signing, there was a sharp slowdown in foreclosure activity as foreclosures were examined for violations.
Now, with new regulations in place, more foreclosures are coming to market in areas where lenders heavily used robo-signing.
Published: December 17, 2012
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