Done Deals: Foreclosure Starts Reach 17-Month High in Nevada, 31-Month High in Maryland; Florida Posts Top State Foreclosure Rate; Miami Posts Top Metro Foreclosure Rate

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Foreclosure Starts Reach 17-Month High in Nevada, 31-Month High in Maryland; Florida Posts Top State Foreclosure Rate; Miami Posts Top Metro Foreclosure Rate

Daren Blomquist

IRVINE, CA – March 14, 2013 — RealtyTrac® (www.realtytrac.com), the leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties and real estate data, today released its U.S. Foreclosure Market Report™ for February 2013, which shows foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — were reported on 154,281 U.S. properties in February, an increase of 2 percent from the previous month but still down 25 percent from February 2012.

The report also shows one in every 849 U.S. housing units with a foreclosure filing during the month.

“At a high level the U.S. foreclosure inferno has been effectively contained and should be reduced to a slow burn in the next two years,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac.

“But dangerous foreclosure flare-ups are still popping up in states where foreclosures have been delayed by a lengthy court process or by new legislation making it more difficult to foreclose outside of the court system.

“Foreclosure starts have been steadily building in those states over the last several months and likely will end up as bank repossessions or short sales later this year.”