ATTOM: FORECLOSURE ACTIVITY HITS 10-YEAR LOW

Foreclosure activity dropped significantly in 2016 to its lowest point in 10 years, according to the 2016 U.S. Foreclosure Market report from ATTOM Data Solutions, a fused property database.

Foreclosure filings, including default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions, occurred at 933,045 properties in 2016, down 14% from 2015’s 717,522 properties. This marked the lowest level of filings since 2006.

ATTOM’s report reflected that .7% of all homes had at least one foreclosure filing in 2016, also the lowest point since 2006.

ATTOM’s year-end foreclosure report is a count of unique properties with a foreclosure filing during the year based on publicly recorded and published foreclosure filings.

The data from December shows foreclosure filings decreased 1% from November and 17% from December 2015. This marks the 15th consecutive month with annual decreases in foreclosure activity.

“The national foreclosure rate stayed within an historically normal range for the third consecutive year in 2016, even as banks continued to clear out legacy foreclosures from the last housing bubble, particularly in the final quarter of the year,” said Daren Blomquist, ATTOM Data Solutions senior vice president.

“Foreclosures completed in the fourth quarter had been in the foreclosure process 803 days on average, a substantial jump from the third quarter and indicating that banks pushed through significant numbers of legacy foreclosures during the quarter,” Blomquist said. “Despite that push, we still show that more than half of all active foreclosures nationwide are on loans originated between 2004 and 2008, with a much higher share of legacy foreclosures in some markets.”

Despite this decrease, foreclosure activity still decreased in 12 states including Delaware which increased 45%, Rhode Island by 29%, Massachusetts by 21%, Connecticut up 21% and Hawaii by 20%.

The time to foreclose increased in the fourth quarter of 2016 to a new record high of 803 days, a jump of 29% from the third quarter and an increase of 27% from last year. This is the longest foreclosure time since ATTOM began tracking in the first quarter of 2007.