Foreclosure Filings Fall in 1H 2018; Down 15% From Year Ago
ATTOM Data Solutions, Irvine, Calif., released its Midyear 2018 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, which shows 362,275 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings, including default notices, scheduled auctions or bank repossessions in the first six months of 2018, down 15 percent from the same period a year ago and down 78 percent from a peak of 1.654 million in the first six months of 2010.
The report said just 26 of the 219 metropolitan statistical areas analyzed in the report (12 percent) posted a year-over-year increase in foreclosure activity in the first six months of 2018, including Houston (up 10 percent); Dallas-Fort Worth (up 11 percent); Cleveland, Ohio (up 4 percent); Phoenix (up 5 percent); and Indianapolis (up 2 percent).
“Localized foreclosure flare-ups in the first half of 2018 can no longer be blamed on legacy distress left over from the last housing bubble given that nearly half of all active foreclosures are now tied to loans originated in 2009 or later and given that the average time to foreclose plummeted in the first two quarters of the year,” said Daren Blomquist, senior vice president with ATTOM Data Solutions. “Instead these local foreclosure increases are typically the result of more recent distress triggers in those markets.”
The report also noted early evidence of gradually loosening lending standards starting in 2014, specifically for FHA-backed loans, Blomquist said. “The foreclosure rate on FHA loans originated in 2014 and 2015 has now jumped above the average FHA foreclosure rate for all loan vintages–the only two post-recession vintages with foreclosure rates above that overall average,” he said.
The report said nationwide, 0.27 percent of all housing units (one in every 370) had a foreclosure filing in the first six months of 2018. States with the highest foreclosure rates in the first half of 2018 were New Jersey (0.80 percent); Delaware (0.57 percent); Maryland (0.50 percent); Illinois (0.44 percent); and Connecticut (0.40 percent).
Among metro areas analyzed in the report, those with the highest foreclosure rates in the first half of 2018 were Atlantic City, N.J. (1.48 percent of all housing units with a foreclosure filing); Trenton, N.J. (0.96 percent); Flint, Mich. (0.95 percent); Philadelphia (0.64 percent); and Columbia, S.C. (0.58 percent).
ATTOM reported 191,914 U.S. properties started the foreclosure process in the first six months of 2018, down 8 percent from the first half of 2017 and down 82 percent from a peak of 1.074 million in the first half of 2009. Twenty-two states and 88 metro areas posted increases in foreclosure starts; Texas (up 11 percent) and Michigan (up 5 percent) led states; Houston (up 25 percent) and Dallas-Fort Worth (up 17 percent) led metro areas.
Other report highlights:
–133,290 U.S. properties were repossessed by lenders through foreclosure in the first half of 2018, down 21 percent from the first half of 2017 and down 75 percent from a peak of 529,633 in the first half of 2010. All but one state (New Mexico) posted a year-over-year decrease in REOs in the first half of 2018.
–188,843 U.S. properties had a foreclosure filing in the second quarter, down 1 percent from the previous quarter and down 14 percent from a year ago, marking the seventh consecutive quarter in which U.S. foreclosure activity was below the pre-recession average of 278,912 properties with foreclosure filings per quarter in 2006 and 2007.
–Properties foreclosed in the second quarter took an average of 720 days from the first public foreclosure notice to complete the foreclosure process, down from 791 days in the previous quarter and down from 883 days a year ago, the second consecutive quarter with a year-over-year decrease and the shortest average foreclosure timeline since Q3 2016.
–States with the longest average foreclosure timelines for foreclosures completed in Q2 2018 were Hawaii (1,553 days), Florida (1,166 days), New Jersey (1,161 days), Utah (1,108 days) and Indiana (1,054 days). States with the shortest average foreclosure timelines for foreclosures were Arkansas (152 days), Virginia (169 days), New Hampshire (177 days), Mississippi (188 days) and Minnesota (222 days).
