24/7 Wall St.

A total of 186,455 foreclosures filings were made in the United States during the month of October, according to real estate tracking firm RealtyTrac. That number represents a rise of 3% month-over-month, and a decline of 19% year-over-year. In January of this year, 210,941 foreclosures were filed. That equates to one in every 706 housing units in the United States.

The lower number of filings is good news, of course, but the there are areas of the country with more than their fair share of foreclosures. The largest year-over-year increases in foreclosures during October occurred in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut. As a RealtyTrac executive noted:

We continued to see vastly different foreclosure trends across the country in October, depending primarily on how each state’s foreclosing infrastructure was able to handle the high volume of delinquent loans during the worst of the foreclosure crisis in 2010. Unfortunately the three states dealing with the biggest rebound in deferred foreclosure activity — New Jersey, New York and Connecticut — also had to deal with the devastation to homes inflicted by super storm Sandy. The foreclosure moratoriums being put into effect as a result of the storm will likely extend the already-lengthy time to foreclose in these states, further prolonging a fundamentally sound housing recovery.

Other highlights from the RealtyTrac report:

• In the hardest hit counties of New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, foreclosure activity was up 92% from a year ago, with an estimated $41 billion in foreclosure inventory in those counties.
• The highest foreclosure rate in the country is in Florida, where one in 312 housing units is in foreclosure. Other states with high foreclosure numbers were Nevada, Illinois, California, Arizona, Georgia, Ohio, Colorado, South Carolina and Michigan.
• Foreclosure activity rose month-over-month in more than half (53%) of the 212 metropolitan areas surveyed by RealtyTrac.

The RealtyTrac press release is available here.

Paul Ausick