Housing markets across the country are experiencing a downturn in sales and prices and mortgage lending standards are tightening, causing many markets to see a rise in foreclosures.
According to real estate data provider PropertyShark.com, foreclosures were on the rise in Los Angeles, New York and Miami in the second quarter, but have recovered in Seattle.
PropertyShark.com recorded 3,793 first-time trustee sales in Los Angeles, 643 foreclosure auctions in New York City, 1,282 in Miami-Dade County, and 334 in Seattle for April-June 2007.
Miami had 136 percent more properties scheduled for foreclosure per household than Los Angeles, and a 775 percent higher rate per household than New York City.
Los Angeles had 3,793 trustee sales during the period, an increase of 54.6 percent from the first quarter of 2007, and a 202 percent increase compared to the first quarter of 2006. The top five ZIP codes in Los Angeles County for trustee sales were in Lancaster and Palmdale.
There were 1,282 new residential foreclosures in Miami-Dade for the quarter, a 29.9 percent increase from Q1 2007 and a 146 percent increase from Q1 2006.
In New York City’s five boroughs, there were 643 new residential foreclosures, a 16.1 percent increase from the first quarter of 2007 (554 foreclosures), and a 19.5 percent increase from the second quarter of 2006.
All New York City boroughs had a quarterly increase in the number of new residential foreclosure auctions, according to PropertyShark, with large percentage increases in the Bronx (76.6 percent) and Staten Island (58.8 percent) since last quarter. However, 73 percent of New York City foreclosures were Queens and Brooklyn properties.
PropertyShark CEO Ryan Slack said foreclosures are at all-time highs for the cities since the company began tracking the figures. “Typically, the second-quarter foreclosure numbers are lower than the first quarter due to the ‘holiday effect,’ but this year the numbers keep climbing,” he said.
Meanwhile, Seattle (King County, Wash.) saw opposite movement in foreclosures from the rest of the cities tracked by PropertyShark.
There were 334 new residential trustee sales in Seattle (King County) in the first quarter of 2007, a 13 percent decrease from the first quarter of 2007. The top ZIP codes were in Federal Way and Columbia.
Nationally, foreclosure activity was down in June compared to the previous month, but was still well above activity for the same month a year ago, according to foreclosure reporting service RealtyTrac. (See Inman News story.)
A total of 164,644 foreclosures were filed in June, down 7 percent from May and up 87 percent from June 2006, RealtyTrac reported.
