July Foreclosures Down from 2009

Foreclosure filings in July dropped 9.7% from the same month last year, the second straight month of yearly declines, according to RealtyTrac, an online foreclosure marketplace.

After a 1% yearly increase in May, filings declined 6.9% on an annual basis in June and nearly 10% in July. Default notices were down from the previous year for the sixth straight month in July, as servicers and lenders have escalated repossessions (REOs) to near-record levels.

The bad news was there were 325,229 properties that received a foreclosure filing in July, a 4% increase from May. It also marks the 17th consecutive month that foreclosure activity exceeded 300,000, said James Saccacio, CEO of RealtyTrac. 92,858 properties went back to the banks as REO in July, the second highest monthly total since RealtyTrac began tracking them in April 2005. It's 1% below the peak in May when there were 93,777 REO properties reported.

On the metropolitan-statistical area (MSA) level, the top-10 areas are showing a "bumpy downward trend," according to RealtyTrac. While those areas all showed decreases from last year in July, five of them had decreases from the previous month.

I haven't seen any specific numbers for Ormond Beach foreclosures, but our inventory still includes a disproportionate number of short sale and bank-owned properties. Which means it is still a great buyer's market.

Sherry Armstrong, Realtor
386-679-3191
yourkeytothebeach@gmail.com
www.sherryarmstrong.com