ATTOM: April Foreclosures Down 8% Monthly, Up from Year Ago

MBA NewsLink Staff

ATTOM, Irvine, Calif., reported properties with foreclosure filings in April fell by 8 percent from March but jumped by 160 percent from a year ago. Completed foreclosures, meanwhile, fell by 36 percent from March.

The company’s monthly U.S. Foreclosure Market Report noted 30,674 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings. Nationwide one in every 4,580 housing units had a foreclosure filing in April.

“The extreme difference between foreclosure starts and foreclosure completions in April might be the beginning of a trend,” said Rick Sharga, executive Vice President of market intelligence for ATTOM. “Record levels of homeowner equity should provide financially distressed homeowners the opportunity to sell their homes prior to a foreclosure auction, meaning we should continue to see fewer foreclosure completions. While it may take several months to determine if this is actually what’s happening, it seems like a real possibility in today’s low supply/high demand housing market.”

Last week, the Mortgage Bankers Association’s National Delinquency Survey reported the delinquency rate for residential mortgage loans fell to a seasonally adjusted rate of 4.11 percent of all loans outstanding in the first quarter, 54 basis points lower than in the fourth quarter and fell by 227 basis points from one year ago. The mortgage delinquency rate dropped for the seventh consecutive quarter, reaching its lowest level since fourth quarter 2019.

Other ATTOM report findings:

–States with the highest foreclosure rates were Illinois (one in every 2,241 housing units); New Jersey (one in every 2,292 housing units); Ohio (one in every 2,585 housing units); Indiana (one in every 2,660 housing units); and Nevada (one in every 3,043 housing units).

–Among 223 metropolitan statistical areas with a population of at least 200,000, those with the highest foreclosure rates in April were Greeley, Colo. (one in every 1,237 housing units); Cleveland, Ohio (one in every 1,326 housing units); Elkhart, Ind. (one in every 1,531 housing units); Fayetteville, N.C. (one in every 1,639 housing units); and Chicago (one in every 1,851 housing units).

–Lenders started the foreclosure process on 22,286 U.S. properties in April, down slightly from 22,360 last month but up 251 percent from a year ago.

–Lenders repossessed 2,830 U.S. properties through completed foreclosures (REOs) in April, down 36 percent from last month but up 82 percent from last year. States with the greatest number of REOs in April were Illinois (417); Pennsylvania (266); Michigan (187); Ohio (150); and California (148).