Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Foreclosure Activity Increases 23% in First Quarter, According to RealtyTrac U.S. Foreclosure Market Report


(Photo shows downtown Philadelphia skyline)

Foreclosure Activity Up 112 Percent From Q1 2007; California and Florida Cities Account for 13 of Top 20 Metro Areas

IRVINE, CA – April 29, 2008 – RealtyTrac®, the leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties, today released its Q1 2008 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report™, which shows foreclosure filings — default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions — were reported on 649,917 properties during the first quarter, a 23 percent increase from the previous quarter and a 112 percent increase from the first quarter of 2007.

(For a detailed copy of the report, showing state-by-state comparisons, please contact Tammy at tammy@atomicpr.com)


The report also shows that one in every 194 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing during the quarter.

“Foreclosure activity in the first quarter increased on a year-over-year basis in 46 out of the 50 states and in 90 of the nation’s 100 largest metro areas, demonstrating that most regions of the country are seeing more foreclosures,” said James J. Saccacio, (top right photo) chief executive officer of RealtyTrac.

“In some areas there are also some unusual, non-market factors impacting the foreclosure numbers. For example, the city of Philadelphia in late March issued a temporary moratorium on all foreclosure auctions for April, and the city has since adopted a program that will delay foreclosure proceedings on owner-occupied properties until the owners have met face-to-face with lenders to attempt a loan workout plan that would prevent foreclosure.

“While we’re hopeful that programs like those in Philadelphia will have a positive long-term impact, they could be simply deferring another flood of foreclosures,” Saccacio continued. “And that could extend the length of time it takes the market to recover from this downward cycle, in which we’ve already seen seven consecutive quarters of increasing foreclosure activity.”

RealtyTrac publishes the largest and most comprehensive national database of foreclosure and bank-owned properties, with over 1 million properties from nearly 2,500 counties across the country, and is the foreclosure data provider to MSN Real Estate, Yahoo! Real Estate and The Wall Street Journal’s Real Estate Journal.

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