Foreclosure starts dip, but more owners losing their homes

If your mortgage is mired in a years-long default process, the bank may be finally coming for you.

A report from a national real estate research firm shows Nevada lenders stepped up foreclosure activity in May, including big jumps in bank-owned foreclosure sales, or completions.

Banks sold 775 repossessed homes in May, up 41.4 percent from April and up 106.7 percent compared with May 2014, California-based RealtyTrac said.

Foreclosure starts, in which a bank sends a notice to the homeowner signaling intent to foreclose, dipped in the month to 684. That was down 23.4 percent month to month and 3.4 percent year to year.

Nevada mirrored national trends, which also showed modest foreclosure starts amid surging completions. Bank-owned home sales jumped 58.2 percent nationwide year over year in May, while starts rose 4.4 percent.

“May foreclosure numbers are a classic good news-bad news scenario, with the number of homeowners starting the foreclosure process stabilizing at pre-housing crisis levels but the number of homeowners actually losing their homes still well above pre-crisis levels and on the rise,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president of RealtyTrac.

“Lenders and courts are pushing through stubborn foreclosure cases that have been languishing in foreclosure limbo for years as options to prevent foreclosure are exhausted or left untapped.”

Nevada ranked No. 5 for overall foreclosure activity, with one in every 590 homes in some stage of default. That is about twice the national rate of one in every 1,041 homes.

Florida, New Jersey, Tennessee and Maryland placed ahead of the Silver State.

But Las Vegas didn’t even crack the top 10 for foreclosure activity among U.S. cities of more than 200,000 people. It was another gambling town that led the nation in defaults.

Atlantic City, where the casino industry has been decimated by competition from gaming expansion in other Northeastern markets, topped metro areas in foreclosures. One in every 230 homes in Atlantic City was in some stage of foreclosure in May.

A third of Atlantic City’s casinos closed in the first nine months of 2014 alone, costing the market 8,000 hospitality jobs. Gaming revenue tumbled more than 60 percent from 2006 to 2014.

Las Vegas ranked No. 20 among big cities for foreclosure activity, with one in every 527 homes in default.

Contact Jennifer Robison at jrobison@reviewjournal.com. Find @J_Robison1 on Twitter.