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Third-Quarter Foreclosures Down in 52 Small U.S. Markets But Up in Larger Metro Areas
(IRVINE, CA) -- Numbers don't lie.
But you might never know it by just glancing at the text in RealtyTrac's new third-quarter residential foreclosures report released today.
Real Estate Channel found foreclosure activity was actually DOWN from the second quarter in 52 individual markets, according to the Irvine, CA-based researcher's own tables at the bottom of this posting.
However, foreclosure activity was UP, as it has been for the past 26 months, in cities with a population of 200,000 or more in Florida, California and Nevada. That wasn't new news.
The news was that foreclosure activity was down for the first time among smaller populations in these markets-- California, 11; Florida, five; Ohio, four; New York, three; Pennsylvania, four; North Carolina, three; and other individual cities noted on the tables.
James Saccacio
"While toxic subprime mortgages drove much of that first wave of foreclosures, high unemployment and exotic Alt-A Option ARMs are spreading the foreclosure flood to more metro areas in 2009."
New foreclosure hot spots flare up
Among the top 50 metro foreclosure rates, the three biggest year-over-year increases were in Boise City-Nampa, Idaho, and Provo-Orem and Salt Lake City in Utah.
In several states the largest increases were posted in cities not previously a focal point for foreclosure activity. The Chico metro area posted the biggest year-over-year increase in California, with foreclosure activity up 98 percent from the third quarter of 2008.
The medium-sized metro about 100 miles north of Sacramento had a 12.8 percent unemployment rate in August, above the state and national averages.
A similar trend was seen in cities like Reno-Sparks, Nev., with an 80 percent year-over-year increase in foreclosure activity, Prescott, Ariz., with a 77 percent increase, Jacksonville, Fla., with a 64 percent increase, Rockford, Ill., with a 64 percent increase, and Lansing-East Lansing, Mich., with a 41 percent increase.
Top metro foreclosure rates
Las Vegas posted the nation's highest metro foreclosure rate, with 5.13 percent (one in 20) of its housing units receiving a foreclosure filing during the quarter -- nearly seven times the national average. A total of 40,408 Las Vegas properties received a foreclosure filing during the quarter, an increase of nearly 9 percent from the previous quarter and an increase of nearly 54 percent from the third quarter of 2008.
Despite a 13 percent decrease in foreclosure activity from the previous quarter, Merced, Calif., posted the nation's second highest foreclosure rate, with 3.72 percent (one in 27) of its housing units receiving a foreclosure filing during the third quarter. A total of 3,092 Merced properties received a foreclosure filing during the quarter, down 11 percent from the third quarter of 2008.
Foreclosure activity in the Cape Coral-Fort Myers metro area in Florida also decreased from the previous quarter and from the third quarter of 2008, but the metro area still registered the nation's third highest metro foreclosure rate -- with 3.67 percent (one in 27) of its housing units receiving a foreclosure filing during the quarter.
A total of 13,206 Cape Coral-Fort Myers properties received a foreclosure filing during the quarter, a decrease of 5 percent from the previous quarter and down 2 percent from the third quarter of 2008.
Other metro areas in the top 10 were the California cities of Stockton (3.53 percent), Modesto (3.39 percent), Riverside-San Bernardino (3.37 percent), Bakersfield (2.88 percent), and Vallejo-Fairfield (2.85 percent), along with the Reno-Sparks metro area in Nevada (2.67 percent) and the Florida metro areas of Port St. Lucie (2.63 percent) and Orlando-Kissimmee (2.57 percent).
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