As the foreclosure affidavit crisis prompted many servicers to suspend foreclosure activity, monthly foreclosure activity sank. But the country is still on track to complete more than a million foreclosures this year.
Servicers filed foreclosure notices on 262,339 properties during November, RealtyTrac reported Thursday. Filings included default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions.
Volume sank from October’s 332,172 foreclosures. Last month’s activity was also a big improvement from 306,627 foreclosures in November 2009.
“While part of the decrease can be attributed to a seasonal drop of 7 to 10 percent that typically occurs in November, fallout from the foreclosure robo-signing controversy forced lenders and servicers to hit the pause button on many foreclosures while they scrambled to revamp their internal procedures and revise or resubmit questionable paperwork,” RealtyTrac Chief Executive Officer James Saccio said in the report.
From Jan. 1 to Nov., RealtyTrac has reported filings on 3,260,630 properties.
In California, 57,378 filings were made last month, dropping from 66,475 in October and maintaining the Golden State’s worst ranking among its peers.
Florida followed, with filings declining to 32,938 from the previous month’s 56,858 filings.
Michigan’s 15,311 was next, then Georgia’s 14,423 and Texas’ 13,369.
The U.S. foreclosure rate was one filing for every 492 housing units during November, a big improvement from one-in-389 filings a month earlier. The rate was also better than one filing for each 417 housing units recorded for a year earlier.
Nevada showed no signs of giving up its worst-rated spot — though the foreclosure rate in the Silver State improved to one filing for each 99 housing units compared to one filing for each 79 housing units during October.
No. 2 Utah had a one-in-221 rate, followed by California’ one-in-233, Arizona’s one-in-262 and Florida’s one-in-267 rate.
Looking only at completed foreclosures, the U.S. total dropped to 67,428 real-estate-owned filings from October’s 93,236 REOs. During November 2009, national REO filings totaled 76,701.
Year-to-date Nov. 30, REOs amounted to 980,698.
Repossessions were highest in Florida, where 10,706 were filed, lower than October’s 13,434. California gave up its No. 1 spot, with REOs declining to 8,213 during November from the previous month’s 13,754.
Michigan was next, with 4,451 REOs, then 4,411 in Texas and 3,195 in Georgia.
