Foreclosures jumped in October by the largest monthly increase since August 2007, according to the October 2016 Foreclosure Market Report from ATTOM Data Solutions, a property database company.
The report shows a total of 105,481 foreclosure filings, default notices, scheduled auctions or bank repossessions, in October. This is up 27% from September’s 129-month low, but it is still down 8% from last year.
While foreclosures increased from September, October still marked the 13th consecutive month of annual decreases.
Last month, ATTOM’s report seemed to show an end to the foreclosure crisis.
“While some states are still slogging through the remnants of the last housing crisis, the foreclosure activity increases in states such as Arizona, Colorado and Georgia are more heavily tied to loans originated since 2009 — after most of the risky lending fueling the last housing boom had stopped,” said Daren Blomquist, ATTOM Data Solutions senior vice president. “The increase in October isn’t enough evidence to indicate a new foreclosure crisis emerging in these states, but it certainly demonstrates that this housing recovery is not completely devoid of risk.”
“The loans used in this housing recovery that appear to be most susceptible to foreclosure are those such as FHA and VA with low down payments,” Blomquist said. “Our data shows FHA and VA loans combined represent 49% of all active foreclosure inventory for loans originated in the seven years ending in 2015.”
“By comparison, FHA and VA loans only represent 12% of all active foreclosure inventory among loans originated in the previous seven-year period, from 2002 to 2008,” he said.
The state with the highest foreclosure rate is Delaware, with one in every 355 housing units having a foreclosure filing, followed by New Jersey with one in every 564 housing units, Maryland with one in every 679 units, Illinois with one in every 704 units and South Carolina with one in every 801 units.
Florida could soon be joining the states with the highest number of foreclosures.
“We would expect to see an increase in Florida foreclosure activity in the coming months given the October ruling by the state supreme court there that allows lenders to re-file a foreclosure action against a homeowner in default even if a previous foreclosure case against that homeowner was dismissed and that original foreclosure case was filed more than five years ago, outside the state’s statute of limitations for foreclosure,” Blomquist said.
Completed foreclosures increased monthly in September, however it could be a good sign as foreclosure inventory actually decreased, showing that the market is clearing out the current foreclosures faster than new foreclosures begin, according to a report from CoreLogic.
