For the second consecutive month, a surge was reported in the number of foreclosures that were completed. New filings, however, were down.
During the fourth month of this year, residential loan servicers initiated the foreclosure process on 51,773 U.S. loans.
Foreclosure starts retreated more than three percent from March and were down more than five percent from the same month in April 2014.
RealtyTrac reported the activity.
California had 5,095 starts, the most of any state. Florida followed with 4,203, then New York’s 3,940, Texas’ 3,295 and Tennessee’s 3,047.
No starts were reported for North Dakota.
Including all types of foreclosure filings — notices of default and lis pendens, notices of trustee’s sale and notices of foreclosure sale, and real-estate-owned filings — 125,875 U.S. housing units had filings in April 2015, worsening 3 percent from a month earlier and 9 percent worse than the a year earlier.
Total filings were highest at 21,182 in Florida. No. 2 California had 13,118 properties with a filing, then 7,606 in Illinois, 6,048 in Ohio and 5,997 in New Jersey.
Just 11 foreclosure filings were in North Dakota.
The U.S. foreclosure rate was one filing for each 1,049 housing units last month.
The rate was slightly worse than one-in-1,082 previously reported for March and one-in-1,137 for April 2014.
Florida’s foreclosure rate was a filing for each 425 housing units — the worst in the nation. Next was Nevada’s one-in-555, then one-in-594 in both New Jersey and Maryland, and Tennessee’s one-in-647.
At one filing for each 29,519 housing units, North Dakota had the most favorable rate.
After all was said and done, mortgage servicers completed the foreclosure process on 45,168 loans last month.
Repossessions jumped for the second month in a row from 36,152 previously reported for March
and 30,056 in April 2014.
From Jan. 1 through April 30, REO filings amounted to 127,249.
April 2015’s worst state for repossessions was
Florida, where 8,929 foreclosures were completed. California had 4,252, then Michigan’s 2,906, Illinois’ 2,664 and Ohio’s 2,411.
Seven REO filings were reported for North Dakota, fewer than in any other state.
