Foreclosure filings, foreclosure inventory down in December

Foreclosure filings in Clark County fell 3 percent from a year ago to 953 in December, and the inventory of homes in some stage of foreclosure dropped to 12,469 at the end of last year, compared with 21,539 at the end of 2011, ForeclosureRadar.com reported Wednesday.

The online foreclosure listing company reported 930 notices of trustee sale in December, a 73.6 percent decrease from 3,528 in December 2011. Real estate-owned inventory, or homes actually owned by the bank, is down more than 60 percent to 3,825 in December.

A few factors turned the tide on foreclosures in 2012, said Sean O'Toole, chief executive officer of Discovery Bay, Calif.-based ForeclosureRadar.

"Clearly, the legal change in Nevada was part of it. We know that," O'Toole said. "The other thing we know for sure is banks really started to step up on loan modifications and short sales. Those two things clearly put downward pressure on foreclosure numbers."

There's also a strong
"anti-foreclosure sentiment" across the board from state attorneys general and the government telling banks it's not OK to foreclose on homeowners, he said.

"I think that's wrong," O'Toole said. "Certainly short sales and loan modifications are better, but I'd rather see foreclosures than leaving people stuck in a prison of debt."

Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac showed 1.8 million U.S. properties received at least one foreclosure filing in 2012, down 3 percent from 2011, and down 36 percent from the peak of 2.9 million filings in 2010. Foreclosure filings include notice of default, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions.

Foreclosure activity increased in 25 states, 20 of which primarily use the longer judicial foreclosure process, led by New Jersey with a 55 percent increase, RealtyTrac found.

Nevada, which uses a more streamlined nonjudicial foreclosure process, posted the nation's steepest decrease in foreclosure activity at 57 percent.

Florida had the highest state foreclosure rate in 2012, with 3.11 percent of housing units (one in 32) receiving a foreclosure filing during the year. Nevada was second at 2.7 percent, followed by Arizona (2.69 percent), Georgia (2.58 percent) and Illinois (2.58 percent)

RealtyTrac Vice President Daren Blomquist said two things could be affecting those states: a built-up backlog of delayed foreclosures and recent state legislation and court rulings that raise the bar for lenders to foreclose.

"That could mean that although we are comfortably past the peak of the foreclosure problem nationally, 2013 is likely to be book-ended by two discrete jumps in foreclosure activity," he said.

Contact reporter Hubble Smith at hsmith@reviewjournal.com
or 702-383-0491.