Foreclosures fall in Colorado | Inside Real Estate News

Colorado is no longer on the top 10 list it never wanted to be on.

RealtyTrac reported today that Colorado ranked No. 12 for its foreclosure rate in July. For a number of years, Colorado frequently was ranked in the top 10 by RealtyTrac. Several years ago, it regularly was the No. 1 market for foreclosures, before the housing bubble burst in many parts of the country, such as Las Vegas and Miami.

Colorado showed a much bigger drop in total foreclosure activity than the nation as a whole last month, according to the Irvine, Calif.-based company.

Colorado?s total foreclosure activity, from the first filing to when the bank takes possession of the property in what is known as a REO, fell 11.78 percent from July 2011 and dropped 21.7 percent from June.

In comparison, nationally foreclosures fell 9.79 percent year-over-year and fell just under 3 percent from June.

Ryan McMaken, of the Colorado Division of Housing, who analyzes Colorado foreclosure activity using a different methodology, said that RealtyTrac?s numbers appear to be consistent with that he is seeing.

?My data is still incomplete for July, but the sales at auction total is looking to hit a record low,? McMaken said. ?If you exclude the period in early 2008 when, by law, there were almost no auction sales, July?s total is the lowest of any month recorded since we began the survey in 2007. The filings numbers will be up slightly from last July, but there?s still no surge in sight for new filings either.?

Nationally, foreclosure activity continued its uneven descent in July as the overall numbers declined on an annual basis for the 22nd straight month, but properties starting the foreclosure process increased on an annual basis for the third straight month, said Daren Blomquist, vice president of RealtyTrac. ?Recent foreclosure activity patterns vary significantly from state to state, often hinging on the level of dysfunction that exists in each state?s foreclosure process,? Blomquist said.

?In states like Florida, Illinois and New Jersey, where processing and procedural issues slowed foreclosure activity to a crawl last year, foreclosure numbers continue to rebound off those artificially low levels. But in states like Texas, Arizona and Virginia, where the average time to foreclose is well below the national average of 378 days, foreclosure activity continues on a long-term downward trend.

?Recent legislation and court rulings could lengthen the foreclosure process in some of the states with the shorter timelines, however, resulting in a temporary foreclosure lull and subsequent rebound in those states as well,? Blomquist continued. ?Case in point is a new Oregon law that took effect in July and gives homeowners in default ? or at risk of default ? the right to request mediation to avoid foreclosure. Oregon foreclosure activity dropped 42 percent from June to July, hitting a five-year low, but we would expect the Oregon numbers to trend back higher sometime in the next several months based on the pattern we?ve seen in other states with similar legislation.?

For more information, please visit RealyTrac.

Have a story idea or real estate tip? Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com. InsideRealEstateNews.com is sponsored by Universal Lending, Land Title Guarantee and 8z Real Estate.com

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Source: http://insiderealestatenews.com/2012/08/colorado-no-12-for-foreclosures/

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