Foreclosures fall to 10-year low in 2016

The U.S. foreclosure rate in 2016 fell to the lowest level in 10 years, according to a recent report by ATTOM Data Solutions, a leading provider of real estate and property data.

ATTOM Data Solutions on Jan. 12 released its Year-End 2016 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report. According to a news release about the report, foreclosure filings were reported on 933,045 U.S. properties in 2016, down 14% from 2015 to the lowest level since 2006 when there were 717,522 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings. Foreclosure filings include default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions.

The report also shows that .7% of all U.S. housing units had at least one foreclosure filing in 2016, the lowest annual foreclosure rate nationwide since 2006 when .58% of housing units had at least one foreclosure filing, according to the release.

“The national foreclosure rate stayed within an historically normal range for the third consecutive year in 2016, even as banks continued to clear out legacy foreclosures from the last housing bubble, particularly in the final quarter of the year,” Daren Blomquist, senior vice president at ATTOM Data Solutions, the parent company of RealtyTrac, said in the release. “Foreclosures completed in the fourth quarter had been in the foreclosure process 803 days on average, a substantial jump from the third quarter and indicating that banks pushed through significant numbers of legacy foreclosures during the quarter.”

Other report findings show:

• The foreclosure process was started on 478,857 U.S. properties in 2016, down 16% from 2015 and down 78% from the peak of 2,139,005 foreclosure starts in 2009.

• 379,437 U.S. properties were repossessed by lenders in 2016, down 16% from 2015 and down 64%  from the peak of 1,050,500 repossessions in 2010.

• Nationwide, 55% of all loans actively in foreclosure as of the end of 2016 were originated between 2004 and 2008.

• Counter to the national trend, 12 states and the District of Columbia posted an increase in overall foreclosure activity in 2016 compared to 2015.

• States with the highest foreclosure rates in 2016 were New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Florida and Illinois.

ATTOM’s year-end foreclosure report is based on publicly recorded and published foreclosure filings collected in more than 2,500 counties nationwide, according to the release.

To read more about the report, click here.

By |2019-11-25T06:49:18-06:00February 17th, 2017|Financial Services|0 Comments

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