RealtyTrac, an online marketplace for foreclosure properties, released its year-end 2013 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report showing foreclosure filings, default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions were down 26 percent from 2012 and down 53 percent from the peak of 2.9 million properties with foreclosure filings in 2010. The 1.4 million total properties with foreclosure filings in 2013 was the lowest annual total since 2007, when there were 1.3 million properties with foreclosure filings.
The report also shows that 1.04 percent of U.S. housing units (one in every 96) had at least one foreclosure filing during the year, down from 1.39 percent of housing units in 2012 and down from a peak of 2.23 percent of housing units in 2010.
Other high-level findings from the report:
· States with the highest foreclosure rates in 2013 were Florida (3.01 percent of all housing units with a foreclosure filing), Nevada (2.16 percent), Illinois (1.89 percent), Maryland (1.57 percent) and Ohio (1.53 percent).
· Total foreclosure activity in 2013 increased in 10 states in 2013 compared to 2012, including Maryland (up 117 percent), New Jersey (up 44 percent), New York (up 34 percent), Connecticut (up 20 percent), Washington (up 13 percent) and Pennsylvania (up 13 percent).
· Scheduled judicial foreclosure auctions (NFS) increased 13 percent in 2013 compared to 2012 to the highest level since 2010. NFS were the only foreclosure document type among the five tracked by RealtyTrac to post an increase nationwide in 2013 compared to 2012.
· States with big increases in scheduled judicial foreclosure auctions included Maryland (up 107 percent), New Jersey (64 percent), Connecticut (up 55 percent), Florida (up 53 percent), Pennsylvania (up 24 percent) and New York (up 15 percent).
· The average estimated value of a property receiving a foreclosure filing in 2013 was $191,693 at the time of the foreclosure filing, up 1 percent from the average value in 2012, and the average estimated market value of properties that received foreclosure filings in 2013 has increased 10 percent since the foreclosure notice was filed.
· The average time to complete a foreclosure nationwide in the fourth quarter increased 3 percent from the previous quarter to a record-high 564 days. States with the longest time to foreclose were New York (1,029 days), New Jersey (999 days) and Florida (944 days).
· Including the 2013 numbers, over the past eight years, 10.9 million U.S. properties have started the foreclosure process and 5.6 million have been repossessed by lenders through foreclosure.
“Millions of homeowners are still living in the shadow of the massive foreclosure crisis that the country experienced over the past eight years since the housing price bubble burst — both in the form of homes lost directly to foreclosure as well as home equity lost as a result of a flood of discounted distressed sales,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. “But the shadow cast by the foreclosure crisis is shrinking as fewer distressed properties enter foreclosure and properties already in foreclosure are poised to exit in greater numbers in 2014 given the greater numbers of scheduled foreclosure auctions in 2013 in judicial states — which account for the bulk of U.S. foreclosure inventory.
“The push to schedule these auctions is certainly coming at an opportune time for the foreclosing lenders,” Blomquist added. “There is unprecedented demand from institutional investors willing to pay with cash to buy at the foreclosure auction, helping to raise the value of properties with a foreclosure filing in 2013 by an average of 10 percent nationwide.”
"Since the Ohio housing market is still experiencing low inventory availability, we have noticed that foreclosure properties are being bought much faster than usual,” said Michael Mahon, Executive Vice President/broker at HER Realtors, covering the Dayton, Cincinnati and Columbus markets. “The number of days foreclosure inventory spends on the market is at an all-time low, so when these foreclosed properties are released into the market we are seeing multiple offer situations that often drive the price up over the original asking price.”
“We continue to experience a decline in foreclosures in the Oklahoma City and Tulsa markets,” said Sheldon Detrick, chief executive officer of Prudential Detrick/Alliance Realty covering the Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Okla., markets. “Year-end foreclosure activity is down compared to 2012, and we are looking forward to home equity appreciation and a strong, spring market.”