Bank Foreclosures Rise, Driving Foreclosure Activity to 19-month High
June 19, 2015
Reuters - Bank repossessions
rose again last month, driving overall U.S. foreclosure activity to a
19-month high on an annual basis, industry firm RealtyTrac said on
Thursday.
A total of 126,868
homes across the country were at some point in the foreclosure process
in May, up 1 percent from April and up 16 percent from the same time
last year, RealtyTrac said.
Foreclosure activity includes foreclosure notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions.
Lenders
reclaimed a total of 44,892 homes in May, down 1 percent from April but
up 58 percent from a year ago. May was the third straight month of
annual increases in bank repossessions, which remained far below the
peak in September 2013 when lenders reclaimed 102,134 properties.
Foreclosure
starts were down 1 percent in May, but rose 4 percent from the same
period last year, RealtyTrac said. Lenders started the foreclosure
process on 51,414 properties last month.
"May
foreclosure numbers are a classic good news-bad news scenario, with the
number of homeowners starting the foreclosure process stabilizing at
pre-housing crisis levels but the number of homeowners actually losing
their homes to foreclosure still well above pre-crisis levels and on the
rise," said Daren Blomquist, RealtyTrac vice president.
"Lenders
and courts are pushing through stubborn foreclosure cases that have been
languishing in foreclosure limbo for years as options to prevent
foreclosure are exhausted or left untapped."
A total of 49,413 properties were scheduled for auction in May, up 6 percent from the prior month, up 5 percent from May 2014.
Florida
continued to post the highest foreclosure rates last month, followed by
New Jersey, Maryland, Nevada and Ohio, RealtyTrac said.
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