Foreclosure Activity Up 30 Percent in Third Quarter

RealtyTrac(R) today released its Q3 2007 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, which shows a total of 635,159 foreclosure filings — default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions — were reported on 446,726 properties nationwide during the third quarter, a 30 percent increase from the previous quarter and an increase of nearly 100 percent from the third quarter of 2006. The report also shows a foreclosure rate of one foreclosure filing for every 196 U.S. households for the quarter.

“August and September were the two highest monthly foreclosure filing totals we’ve seen since we began issuing our report in January 2005,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “Although not all areas are being hit as hard as others, the rise in foreclosures is quite widespread, with 45 out of the 50 states documenting year-over-year increases in the third quarter. Given the number of loans due to reset through the middle of 2008, and the continuing weakness in home sales, we would expect foreclosure activity to remain high and even increase over the next year in many markets.”

California and Florida registered the top two state foreclosure filing totals for the quarter, followed by Ohio, which came in third with 46,818 foreclosure filings on 35,242 properties. With 44,092 foreclosure filings on 26,773 properties, Texas documented the nation’s fourth highest total. Michigan’s total of 43,786 foreclosure filings on 29,655 properties was the fifth highest total.

Other states with foreclosure filing totals among the top 10 included Georgia, Arizona, Illinois, Colorado and Nevada.

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