Is this good or bad--US Foreclosures Fall, Bank Repossessions Hit Record High

So, once again I will be the agent who is actually honest and takes the permasmile off his face and shares the bad news. And the good news, which is that buying opportunities will continue to make themselves available--and we know that interest rates are ridiculously low. If you wanted to play a 7-year housing recovery curve, you could lock into a 7-year mortgage at 3.75% right now. That's just nuts. The bad news is that if you're selling your house, you are going to continue to have lots of competition--and some of those will be foreclosures. And those foreclosures are going to be less expensive than your house in a lot of scenarios. So you need to price right the first time and not get caught in a downward spiral. As always, feel free to ask me your questions or have your friends ask. I'm here to help, even if you might not like the answers.

US Foreclosures Fall, Bank Repossessions Hit Record High

By: Joseph Pisani, CNBC News Associate
Published: Thursday, 10 Jun 2010 | 4:03 AM ET

The national foreclosure rate continued to fall in May from the previous month, according to a new report released Thursday.

However, bank repossessions reached a record high during the same month, a sign that lenders are focusing on their backlog of foreclosure inventory before tackling new distressed loans, according to foreclosure database website RealtyTrac, which released the report.

“What it looks like is that the lenders are focusing on processing the delinquent loans they already have rather than initiating new foreclosures,” said Rick Sharga, senior vice president of RealtyTrac. “They’re managing inventory to prevent a free fall in home prices.”

Foreclosure activity dropped 3.27 percent in May from the previous month, and was up 0.45 percent from May 2009. In all, 322,920 properties generated a foreclosure notice. One in every 400 homes in America received a foreclosure notice in May. (Foreclosure notices are defined as a default notice, auction sale notice or bank repossession.)

Bank repossessions (known as real estate owned properties or REOs) hit a record high in May for the second month in a row. Lenders repossessed a total of 93,777 properties during the month, a 1 percent increase from the previous month’s record and a 44-percent jump from May 2009. All 50 states reported a year-over-year increases in REOs, according to RealtyTrac.

So far this year, the U.S. foreclosure rate has been falling slightly on a month-to-month basis. And in April, RealtyTrac reported a year-over-year decline in the foreclosure rate for the first since the firm began reporting data in 2005. RealtyTrac still projects that over 3 million homes will receive a foreclosure notice over the course of this year, said Sharga.

The ten states with the highest foreclosure rates were little changed from the previous month. According to the RealtyTrac report, Nevada remains No. 1 with one in every 79 properties in the state getting a foreclosure notice, five times the national rate.

Arizona ranked second with one in every 169 households receiving a notice, followed by Florida (one in 174 households), California (one in 186 households) and Michigan (one in every 223 households.)

Vermont had the lowest rate, with one in every 16,454 properties receiving a foreclosure notice.

© 2010 CNBC.com

View the original article here: http://www.cnbc.com/id/37599834

Blogger Matthew Allan is a specialist in Savannah Real Estate, focusing on Savannah's downtown historic districts, including the Landmark Historic District, Victorian Historic District, Thomas Square Historic District, Starland Historic District, Baldwin Park, and Ardsley Park Historic District.