This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, March 14, 2013 - Foreclosure filings in the U.S. nudged up 2 percent in February but were still down 25 percent from a year ago -- an indication that the flood of foreclosures that has swamped the housing market since 2006 might finally be receding, according to a national online marketer of foreclosures.
Daren Blomquist, the vice president of RealtyTrac, put it another way: “At a high level the U.S. foreclosure inferno has been effectively contained and should be reduced to a slow burn in the next few years. But dangerous flare-ups are still popping up in states where foreclosures have been delayed by a lengthy court process or by new legislation making if more difficult to foreclose outside of the court system.”
Illinois ranked third among states recording the highest foreclosure rates in February, even though the state’s rate has dropped for the third straight month when compared to numbers from the previous year. A total of 12,671 properties saw a foreclosure filing in Illinois, or one in every 417 housing units.
Missouri had 1,487 foreclosure filings in February, a rate of one in every 1,818 housing units. Foreclosures dropped 37 percent in Missouri when compared to a year ago; the state ranked 37 nationally.
Foreclosure filings include default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions (REOs). Nationwide, bank repossessions fell 11 percent from January and decreased 29 percent from February 2012. That put bank repossessions at their lowest level in 65 months.
The full report is available at the RealtyTrac website.
