New U.S. foreclosure filings increased 19 percent from December to January and increased 25 percent compared to January 2005, according to RealtyTrac, an online marketplace for foreclosure properties.
The January 2007 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report found that 130,511 new foreclosure filings were reported in January, which is a rate of one new foreclosure filing for every 886 U.S. households.
Nevada replaced Colorado as the state with the highest foreclosure rate in January, rising 8.31 percent compared to December and 33.54 percent compared to January 2006, RealtyTrac reported.
There were 2,397 new foreclosure filings during the month in Nevada, for a foreclosure rate of one new foreclosure filing for every 362 households. This rate is 2.4 times the national average.
Colorado, which topped the list in December, dropped to fourth place. The number of new foreclosure filings in that state dropped 0.23 percent compared to December and was up 29.5 percent compared to January 2006, with one new foreclosure filing for every 377 households. Colorado’s foreclosure rate was the highest in the nation for nine of 12 months last year.
Michigan’s foreclosure rate was the second highest in January, rising 69.6 percent since December and up 147.3 percent compared to January 2006. The state reported 11,554 new foreclosure filings in January, a rate of one new foreclosure filing for every 366 households.
Georgia’s foreclosure rate of one new foreclosure filing for every 372 households was the third highest in January — the fourth month in a row that the state has maintained this position. Georgia reported 8,328 new foreclosure filings in January, up 29 percent compared to December and up 13.4 percent compared to January 2006.
“January’s foreclosure number represented the highest monthly number we’ve seen since we began issuing this report two years ago,” said James J. Saccacio, CEO for RealtyTrac, in a statement. “The month-over-month increase is similar to what we saw last January, when foreclosures shot up 27 percent from the previous month; however, the year-over-year increase of 25 percent is well below the 45 percent annual increase we saw in January last year.”
RealtyTrac publishes a national database of pre-foreclosure and foreclosure properties, with about 800,000 properties from about 2,500 counties across the country. The company provides foreclosure data to MSN Real Estate, Yahoo! Real Estate and The Wall Street Journal‘s Real Estate Journal.
Texas had the highest foreclosure total in January, with 14,728 new foreclosure filings in January. That represents a 4 percent increase compared to December and a 1 percent decrease compared to January 2006. Texas had a foreclosure rate of one new foreclosure filing for every 547 households in January, which was sixth highest among the states and 1.6 times the national average.
California’s foreclosure total of 14,430 was the nation’s second highest and represented a 14 percent increase from December, RealtyTrac reported. The state’s foreclosure rate of one new foreclosure filing for every 846 households was slightly above the national average and 14th highest in the nation.
Florida reported 11,709 new foreclosure filings during the month, which is the third highest total among the states and a 40 percent increase from the previous month, according to the report. Florida’s foreclosure total was up 13 percent from January 2006, and its foreclosure rate of one new foreclosure filing for every 624 households was the nation’s sixth highest.
Other states with foreclosure totals among the nation’s 10 highest included Ohio, Illinois, New York and New Jersey.
Among metro areas, the Detroit area had the nation’s highest metro foreclosure rate in January, according to the report, replacing Greeley, Colo., which had held the top spot for the previous five months.
The Detroit metro area had 6,653 new foreclosure filings in January, which was more than double the number reported in December and represents a foreclosure rate of one new foreclosure filing for every 124 households — about seven times the national average.
The Greeley, Colo., metro area reported a 2 percent decrease in foreclosure activity in January and the area’s rate of one new foreclosure filing for every 173 households ranked second highest among the nation’s metro areas.
The 28-county Atlanta metropolitan area documented a foreclosure rate of one new foreclosure filing for every 214 households — the nation’s third-highest metro foreclosure rate. The metro area reported 6,791 new foreclosure filings during the month, up 25 percent from the previous month, according to RealtyTrac.
RealtyTrac’s report includes properties in all phases of foreclosure: Notice of default and lis pendens; notice of trustee sale and notice of foreclosure sale; and real estate-owned, or REO properties that have been foreclosed on and repurchased by a bank.
