Foreclosure filings dip in September
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Good morning. This one is a tad confusing, but here goes: RealtyTrac reports this morning that foreclosure filings slipped 8% from August to September. What’s confusing about that? Nothing, except that some news organizations are leading with a different angle, that foreclosures are running nearly double last year’s levels.
This is the AP lead: ‘Foreclosure filings across the U.S. nearly doubled last month compared with September 2006, as financially strapped homeowners already behind on mortgage payments defaulted on their loans or came closer to losing their homes to foreclosure, a real estate information company said Thursday.’
Is the month-to-month decline significant? ‘August was an extraordinarily high month for foreclosure activity, so some falloff was almost predictable,’ said Rick Sharga, RealtyTrac’s vice president for marketing. ‘We don’t see September as the beginning of the end in this cycle of foreclosures.’
Month Filings Increase over previous year
March 31,434 183%
April 30,505 245%
May 39,659 354%
June 38,801 286%
July 39,013 289%
August 57,875 363%
Sept. 51,259 246%
Note: Yes, RealtyTrac often counts more than one foreclosure ‘filing’ per foreclosed house. We’ve discussed that issue at length, and our opinion is that the trend numbers are still accurate.
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Photo Credit: AP