Nationwide Foreclosure Activity Jumps 97 Percent in December

A total of 215,749 foreclosure filings were reported in December, according to foreclosure marketplace RealtyTrac — up 97 percent from December 2006, and bringing total fourth quarter foreclosure activity to 642,150 filings on 527,740 properties.

Fourth quarter’s total was up 1 percent from the previous quarter and an 86 percent increase from the fourth quarter of 2006, RealtyTrac said.

“The year ended with a monthly increase of 7 percent in December, making it the fifth straight month with more than 200,000 foreclosure filings reported and giving the fourth quarter the highest quarterly total we’ve seen since we began issuing our report in January 2005,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac.

For the full year, 2,203,295 foreclosure filings — default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions — were reported on 1,285,873 properties nationwide during 2007, up 75 percent from 2006.

“While filings were up 75 percent, the number of properties in some stage of foreclosure was up 79 percent,” Saccacio said, “indicating that some properties may have just entered the initial stage of foreclosure in 2007 and could be going through the rest of the foreclosure process in 2008 — unless lender and government intervention efforts begin to gain more traction.”

Where the foreclosures are
With a total of 481,392 foreclosure filings on 249,513 properties during the year, California documented the highest number of foreclosure filings and the most properties in some stage of foreclosure in 2007. The state’s total foreclosure filings more than tripled from 2006, and the state’s 2007 foreclosure rate — 1.9 percent of its households entering some stage of foreclosure during the year — ranked fourth highest among U.S. states.

Nevada posted the nation’s highest state foreclosure rate for 2007, with 3.4 percent of its households entering some stage of foreclosure during the year — more than three times the national average. The state documented the highest monthly foreclosure rate in all 12 months of last year.

With more than 2 percent of its households entering some stage of foreclosure during the year, Florida documented the second highest state foreclosure rate for 2007. A total of 279,325 foreclosure filings on 165,291 properties were reported in the state during the year, RealtyTrac said, more than twice the number of filings reported in 2006.

Click here to read full foreclosure statistics for each U.S. state, covering all of 2007, the fourth quarter, as well as December’s data.

For more information, visit http://www.realtytrac.com.