Foreclosure Deals, an online provider of foreclosed home sale listings and information industry, has announced that foreclosures increased by four percent nationwide during July and still have fallen in the month of August. The month's total of 325,225 homes represents a 10 percent decrease from foreclosure totals in June 2009, and indicate that the trend of rising bank repossessions is continuing well into the summer.
Using statistics drawn from the Foreclosure Deals database of foreclosure properties, the company revealed that real estate-owned (REO) properties, totaled 94,500 during July with a drop of less than one percent in the month of August, nearly matching the single-month record. Bank repossessions represent the final stage of the foreclosure process, but are still sold for discounts as bank owned homes. Notices of default, which mark a new foreclosure, were up one percent in July, but down more than 28 percent from July of 2009.
The trend of increasing bank repossessions and fewer Notice of Default has been the case for several months, but experts are careful to point out that it does not signal that the foreclosure market is flagging.
"Foreclosure totals are up over 300,000 for the month of August, and that's a huge number," remarked James Foxx, a business analyst with Foreclosure Deals. "A lot of bank repos are occurring because they're finally clearing out the huge log of properties that have been in foreclosure limbo due to moratoriums, loan negotiations and similar delays. Notices of default are down, but a lot of that has to do with foreclosure prevention programs. So we're cutting down on new foreclosures, but there are still plenty of bank-owned homes out there, keeping the foreclosure inventory high."
The top five states for foreclosure totals, California, Florida, Michigan, Illinois and Arizona, all saw foreclosures increase during August by at least seven percent, except for California, which saw its totals decrease slightly by 3.1 percent. Illinois saw a staggering monthly increase of 33 percent mainly in Chicago.
The states with the highest rates of foreclosure however, Arizona, Florida and Nevada, all saw a dramatic decrease in foreclosures from August of 2009. Other states saw their foreclosure rate increase dramatically during the same time period, including Michigan, up 128 percent; Illinois, up 35 percent; Maryland, up 35 percent; and Georgia, up 13 percent.
"A lot of buyers are reporting great deals on bank repossessions," said Foxx. "Banks are looking to get rid of that surplus inventory, and prices have been very competitive."
For more information, visit www.ForeclosureDeals.com.
