Foreclosure starts decreased 15% in April compared with April 2015, according to RealtyTrac’s U.S. Foreclosure Market Report.
It was the 10th consecutive month that foreclosure starts decreased on a year-over-year basis.
However, foreclosure starts increased in certain states, counter to the national trend, including Connecticut (up 142%), Arizona (up 63%), Virginia (up 14%), Maryland (up 11%) and Massachusetts (up 9%).
Bank repossessions fell for a second consecutive month in April, following 12 consecutive months of annual increases. RealtyTrac had previously predicted that the surge of bank repossessions that started last year would be temporary, as banks cleared out some of the last of their lingering foreclosure inventory from the housing crisis, and that appears to be the case.
Although bank repossessions were down nationwide, they increased from a year earlier in 23 states, including Massachusetts (up 132%), Alabama (up 46%), South Carolina (up 36%), Minnesota (up 24%), Maryland (up 21%), Texas (up 18%) and New York (up 6%).
RealtyTrac’s report also looks at total foreclosure activity – including default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions – for April. All together, there were 100,932 foreclosure filings on U.S. properties – a decrease of 7% compared with March and a decrease of 20% compared with April 2015.
It was the ninth consecutive month with a year-over-year decrease.
States where overall foreclosure activity increased from a year ago included Connecticut (up 61%), Massachusetts (up 43%), Virginia (up 16%), Maryland (up 10%) and New Jersey (up 5%).
Overall foreclosure activity is back to 2006 levels but not yet at 2005 levels, according to the report.
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