On July 11th, RealtyTrac released its Midyear 2013 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report which showed a total of just over 800,000 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings (default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions) in the first half of the year. This figure represented a 19% decline from the previous six months a 23% drop from the same time period last year.
RealtyTrac reported declines in June from the previous month in both foreclosure filings (-14%) and foreclosure starts (-21%). These were the lowest numbers reported since December 2006 and December 2005 respectively. Foreclosure filings were reported to be down 35% from one year ago and foreclosure starts down 45%.
Bank repossessions (REOs) dropped 9% month to month and 35% from the previous year. While declines occurred in 34 states, a number of states showed significant increases including New York (+21%), New Jersey (+33%), Washington (+71%), Maryland (+74%), Oklahoma (+103%) and Arkansas (+143%).