Foreclosure activity worsened last month. New filings climbed, the foreclosure rate deteriorated and the number of completed foreclosures was higher.
During October, new foreclosures were started on 56,452 U.S. residential properties, worsening by 12 percent compared to the previous month.
But foreclosure starts have subsided from the same month a year earlier, when residential loan servicers initiated 58,939 foreclosures.
RealtyTrac reported the numbers.
California’s 6,201 foreclosure starts were the most of any state. Florida followed with 5,522, then 3,921 in Texas, 3,137 in New York and 3,128 in Georgia.
No foreclosure starts in October were reported for North Dakota.
Total U.S. foreclosure filings — including default notices, scheduled auctions and repossessions — were made on 123,109 properties last month.
Filings worsened from 106,866 in September but retreated from 133,919 filings in October 2013.
October 2014 saw 20,236 Florida properties hit with a filing. California had 14,994 total filings, then Ohio’s 7,603, Illinois’ 7,440 and Maryland’s 5,943 filings.
No filings were reported for North Dakota.
One foreclosure filing was made on every 1,069 U.S. housing units during October. The foreclosure rate worsened from one-in-1,232 a month earlier but was improved compared to one-in-978 a year earlier.
The worst foreclosure rate was in Maryland: one filing for every 400 properties. Florida’s one-in-444 was the second-worst rate. After that was one-in-596 in Nevada, one-in-674 in Ohio and one-in-712 in Illinois.
The nation’s mortgage servicers completed 27,914 foreclosures last month, more than the 22,930 repossessions in September.
But real-estate-owned filings fell from 37,715 during October 2013.
In the 10 months ended Oct. 31, completed foreclosures amounted to 277,815.
