RealtyTrac’s July 2013 foreclosure report showed that foreclosures still remained a significant part of the housing market. That’s not great news for the economy.
But in better news, foreclosures at least fell on a year-to-year basis, showing that the overall trend of foreclosure activity was heading in a downward direction.
According to RealtyTrac, foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — were reported on 130,888 U.S. properties in July, an increase of 2 percent from the 78-month low in June but still down 32 percent from July 2012. The report also shows that one in every 1,001 U.S. housing units was hit with a foreclosure filing during the month.
• The monthly increase in U.S. foreclosure activity was driven by a 6 percent monthly increase in foreclosure starts and a 4 percent monthly increase in bank repossessions, although both of these decreased from a year ago.
• Foreclosure starts increased from the previous month in 26 states and were up from a year ago in 15 states.
• Bank repossessions increased from the previous month in 29 states and were up from a year ago in 18 states.
• The top six state foreclosure rates in July were in states with a judicial foreclosure process, although two of those top six states posted decreasing foreclosure activity from a year ago: Ohio (down 18 percent) and Illinois (down 44 percent).
