Foreclosure Activity Hits Record High in Third Quarter

Foreclosure Activity Hits Record High in Third Quarter U.S. Foreclosure Activity Sets New Quarterly Record, Up 23 Percent From Q3 2008 IRVINE, Calif. – Oct. 15, 2009 — RealtyTrac® (www.realtytrac.com), the leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties, today released its U.S. Foreclosure Market Report™ for Q3 2009, which shows that foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — were reported on 937,840 properties in the third quarter, a 5 percent increase from the previous quarter and an increase of nearly 23 percent from Q3 2008. One in every 136 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing during the quarter — the highest quarterly foreclosure rate since RealtyTrac began issuing its report in the first quarter of 2005. Foreclosure filings were reported on 343,638 properties in September, a 4 percent decrease from the previous month but a 29 percent increase from September 2008. Despite the monthly decrease, September’s total was still the third highest monthly total since the RealtyTrac report began in January 2005, behind only July and August of this year. “Bank repossessions, or REOs, jumped 21 percent from the second quarter to the third quarter, corresponding to jumps in defaults and scheduled auctions in the previous two quarters,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “REO activity increased from the previous quarter in all but two states and the District of Columbia, indicating that lenders may be starting to work through some of the pent-up foreclosure inventory caused by legislative delays, loan modification efforts and high volumes of distressed properties.” Report methodology The RealtyTrac U.S. Foreclosure Market Report provides a count of the total number of properties with at least one foreclosure filing reported during the month or quarter — broken out by type of filing at the state and national level. Data is also available at the individual county level for both Q1 2009 and March 2009. Data is collected from more than 2,200 counties nationwide, and those counties account for more than 90 percent of the U.S. population. RealtyTrac’s report incorporates documents filed in all three phases of foreclosure: Default — Notice of Default (NOD) and Lis Pendens (LIS); Auction — Notice of Trustee Sale and Notice of Foreclosure Sale (NTS and NFS); and Real Estate Owned, or REO properties (that have been foreclosed on and repurchased by a bank). If more than one foreclosure document is filed against a property during the month or quarter, only the most recent filing is counted in the report. U.S. Foreclosure Market Data by State – Q3 2009 (NOTE: Click on a column heading to sort) Rate Rank State Name NOD LIS NTS NFS REO Total 1/every X HH (rate) %Change from Q2 09 %Change from Q3 08 -- United States 153,255 188,986 263,957 94,590 237,052 937,840 136 5.40 22.50 32 Alabama 8 0 3,808 0 2,135 5,951 359 -7.07 173.86* 33 Alaska 9 0 534 0 221 764 369 29.93 36.43 2 Arizona 20 0 36,176 0 14,146 50,342 53 5.07 24.55 21 Arkansas 339 0 3,002 0 1,837 5,178 249 11.59 39.61* 3 California 111,741 1 87,377 0 50,935 250,054 53 -1.52 18.60 9 Colorado 41 0 11,437 0 4,787 16,265 131 11.43 12.53 25 Connecticut 0 3,422 0 408 1,283 5,113 281 68.86 10.00 38 Delaware 0 4 0 483 291 778 500 -8.79 -11.69 District of Columbia 405 0 619 0 159 1,183 240 19.37 -11.05 4 Florida 1 95,790 1 39,403 21,729 156,924 56 -0.71 23.27 7 Georgia 53 1 22,088 0 11,243 33,385 119 6.69 25.06 14 Hawaii 449 0 1,499 0 795 2,743 185 29.02 141.46 5 Idaho 2,916 0 3,021 0 594 6,531 97 28.06 153.53* 10 Illinois 0 18,585 1 8,980 9,704 37,270 141 13.68 30.29 20 Indiana 0 2,362 0 4,504 5,235 12,101 230 -12.75 -15.77 43 Iowa 1 0 658 0 1,292 1,951 681 17.81 31.91* 31 Kansas 0 538 0 1,129 1,735 3,402 358 39.71 47.08 41 Kentucky 1 1,050 0 1,126 1,102 3,279 581 15.30 12.45 37 Louisiana 0 762 0 2,092 1,132 3,986 466 21.30* 98.70* 42 Maine 0 234 0 577 242 1,053 662 27.02 33.12 12 Maryland 3 6,795 0 5,795 2,210 14,803 157 58.83 85.64 17 Mass. 1 7,779 0 3,159 1,728 12,667 215 17.53 34.81 8 Michigan 11,454 0 10,575 0 14,997 37,026 122 9.50** 22.31** 18 Minnesota 31 0 5,450 0 5,139 10,620 217 16.27 100.26 40 Mississippi 4 1 841 0 1,374 2,220 565 50.51* 241.01* 30 Missouri 24 0 4,470 0 3,398 7,892 335 8.26 -11.17† 47 Montana 1 0 19 0 273 293 1,486 94.04 -6.69 45 Nebraska 241 247 12 6 229 735 1,062 75.84* -29.67 1 Nevada 19,949 0 16,329 0 11,647 47,925 23 9.68 58.88 27 New Hampshire 14 0 1,372 0 558 1,944 306 -5.08 -2.21 15 New Jersey 0 11,816 0 3,878 2,414 18,108 193 44.59 1.20 35 New Mexico 0 890 0 837 456 2,183 395 9.20 84.69* 39 New York 0 11,048 1 2,316 1,877 15,242 521 11.55 5.28 36 North Carolina 1,028 4 4,158 0 4,628 9,818 420 28.86 -5.99 49 North Dakota 0 3 0 59 52 114 2,724 29.55 -20.28 13 Ohio 0 12,137 0 8,707 8,801 29,645 171 -4.73 -11.71 29 Oklahoma 744 843 396 1,980 1,069 5,032 323 64.66* 22.02* 11 Oregon 108 2 7,033 0 3,175 10,318 156 7.09 76.59 34 Pennsylvania 1 4,961 0 5,232 3,973 14,167 387 7.16 15.48 26 Rhode Island 1 0 871 0 682 1,554 290 -6.33 -2.75 24 South Carolina 1 3,695 1 1,153 2,696 7,546 268 10.99 59.74 44 South Dakota 0 110 0 105 149 364 981 127.50 205.88 22 Tennessee 4 1 4,730 0 6,153 10,888 250 3.92 -9.09†† 28 Texas 86 4 17,256 0 12,492 29,838 316 11.27 8.72 6 Utah 3,515 0 3,564 0 2,474 9,553 97 13.24 96.28 50 Vermont 2 1 7 0 52 62 5,023 342.86 169.57 16 Virginia 51 1 10,136 0 6,499 16,687 196 8.24 4.14† 23 Washington 0 0 6,142 0 4,233 10,375 264 -7.32 33.00 48 West Virginia 6 0 287 0 277 570 1,549 67.16* 356.00* 19 Wisconsin 1 5,899 0 2,661 2,620 11,181 229 11.17 105.16 46 Wyoming 1 0 86 0 130 217 1,117 -4.82 -14.90 *Actual increase may not be as high due to data collection changes or improvements **Collection of records classified as NOD began in August 2009 because of change in state law † Collection of some records previously classified as NOD in this state was discontinued starting in January 2009 †† Collection of some records previously classified as NOD in this state was discontinued starting in September 2008 When reading the numbers, this is the order for each amount: Rate Rank State Name NOD LIS NTS NFS REO Total 1/every X HH (rate) %Change from Q2 09 %Change from Q3 08 Posted October 15, 2009 from Realty Trak