US Foreclosures Down
RealtyTrac released its monthly report on US foreclosures for January on Thursday, showing a year-over-year decline for the fourth month in a row. The pace of seizures continues to be affected by the legal scrutiny lenders have undergone as a result of the robo-signing scandal.
Invine, California-based RealtyTrac said that a total of 261,333 properties received notices of default, auction, or seizure last month, or one in every 497 households. It was the third month in a row that total filings came in under 300,000, following a 20-month stretch in which the number was higher.
Analysts say the report is more a result of lenders being backed up with reviewing procedures and resubmitting paperwork related to accusations of improper foreclosures than of a real recovery in the housing market.
Officials from all 50 states are conducting probes into the foreclosure procedures of major lenders after it was discovered that thousands of foreclosures were processed with the use of robo-signers, or employees who signed hundreds of documents daily without verifying their contents. A coordinated investigation was launched in October by the attorneys general from all states after several of the nation's largest loan servicers voluntarily halted seizures to review their own procedures.
Foreclosure filings declined 26 percent in December on year-over-year basis, the biggest drop on records that date back to 2005. Defaults have now fallen for 12 consecutive months on a year-to-year basis and the number of defaults has declined for four straight months.
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