Q1 Foreclosure Activity Takes a Healthy Tumble

Foreclosure activity during the first quarter of this year declined in 36 percent of housing markets to levels not seen since the pre-recession period, according to new data from RealtyTrac.

Foreclosure filings were reported on 289,116 U.S. properties in the first quarter, a four percent drop from the previous quarter and an eight percent decline from the first quarter of 2015. The new numbers mark the lowest quarterly total since the fourth quarter of 2006.

Among 216 metropolitan statistical areas with a population of at least 200,000, a total of 78 foreclosure activity below pre-recession average levels, including Los Angeles (27 percent below pre-recession average), Dallas (65 percent below pre-recession average), Houston (64 percent below pre-recession average), Miami (19 percent below pre-recession average), and Atlanta (57 percent below pre-recession average).

Still, many markets were bedeviled with foreclosure woes. One in every 459 U.S. housing units had a foreclosure filing in the first quarter, and the states with the top five highest foreclosure rates were Maryland (one in every 194 housing units with a foreclosure filing); New Jersey (one in every 216 housing units); Nevada (one in every 236 housing units); Delaware (one in every 240 housing units); and Florida (one in every 274 housing units. Among the major metro areas with continued foreclosure grief were the New Jersey markets Atlantic City (one in every 106 housing units with a foreclosure filing) and Trenton (one in every 168 housing units) plus Baltimore (one in every 183 housing units), Lakeland-Winter Haven, Fla. (one in every 196 housing units) and Rockford, Ill. (one in every 211 housing units).