Real Estate Central

Foreclosure Activity Up 65 Percent From April 2007

IRVINE, Calif., May 14 /PRNewswire/ — RealtyTrac(R)
(http://www.realtytrac.com), the leading online marketplace for foreclosure
properties, today released its April 2008 U.S. Foreclosure Market
Report(TM), which shows foreclosure filings — default notices, auction
sale notices and bank repossessions — were reported on 243,353 properties,
a 4 percent increase from the previous month and a nearly 65 percent
increase from April 2007. The report also shows one in every 519 U.S.
households received a foreclosure filing during the month.

RealtyTrac publishes the largest and most comprehensive national
database of foreclosure and bank-owned properties, with over 1.5 million
properties from over 2,200 counties across the country, and is the
foreclosure data provider to MSN Real Estate, Yahoo! Real Estate and The
Wall Street Journal’s Real Estate Journal.

“The total number of U.S. properties with foreclosure activity in April
was the highest monthly total we’ve seen since we began issuing the report
in January 2005,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of
RealtyTrac. “Although only about 2 percent of households nationwide are in
foreclosure, these properties contribute to already bloated inventories of
homes for sale, and put downward pressure on home values. Areas of
California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona continue to be particularly
hard-hit. Property tax bases are eroding, putting municipal budgets in
peril. For example, the city council in Vallejo, California — part of a
metropolitan area with a foreclosure rate that ranked sixth highest in the
nation in April — last week voted to have the city file for bankruptcy.”

Nevada, California, Arizona post top state foreclosure rates

Despite a 5 percent month-over-month decrease in foreclosure activity
in April, Nevada continued to document the nation’s highest state
foreclosure rate. One in every 146 Nevada households received a foreclosure
filing in April, 3.6 times the national average, and the state’s
foreclosure activity was up 95 percent from April 2007.

California posted the second highest state foreclosure rate in April,
with one in every 204 households receiving a foreclosure filing during the
month. Foreclosure filings were reported on 64,683 California properties in
April, down less than 1 percent from the previous month but still the most
of any state and an increase of 112 percent from April 2007.

Arizona foreclosure activity in April increased 26 percent from the
previous month and 181 percent from April 2007, helping to bump the state’s
foreclosure rate up to third highest among the states. Foreclosure filings
were reported on 11,620 Arizona properties in March, one in every 224 total
households.

With one in every 242 households receiving a foreclosure filing in
April, Florida documented the nation’s fourth highest state foreclosure
rate. Foreclosure filings were reported on 35,264 Florida properties during
the month, the nation’s second highest total. Florida foreclosure activity
increased nearly 17 percent on a month-to-month basis and 146 percent on a
year-over-year basis.

Colorado foreclosure activity in April was down nearly 3 percent from
the previous month and up just 3 percent from April 2007, but the state’s
foreclosure rate still registered fifth highest among the states. One in
every 349 Colorado households received a foreclosure filing in April,
nearly 1.5 times the national average.

Other states with foreclosure rates ranking among the top 10 were
Maryland, Georgia, Ohio, Michigan and Massachusetts.

California, Florida, Ohio report highest foreclosure totals

Foreclosure filings were reported on 11,680 Ohio properties in April,
the third highest state total behind California and Florida. Ohio
foreclosure activity increased nearly 4 percent from the previous month and
more than 2 percent from April 2007. The state’s foreclosure rate continued
to rank among the top 10, with one in every 432 households receiving a
foreclosure filing during the month.

With foreclosure filings reported on 11,406 properties in April, Texas
reported the fifth highest total, behind Arizona at No. 4. Foreclosure
activity in Texas increased nearly 7 percent from the previous month but
was down less than 1 percent from April 2007. With one in every 809 Texas
households receiving a foreclosure filing during the month, the state’s
foreclosure rate registered below the national average and ranked No. 17
among the states.

Other states in the top 10 for total properties with filings were
Michigan, Georgia, Illinois, Nevada and Maryland.

California and Florida cities account for 9 of top 10 metro rates

Six California cities documented foreclosure rates that ranked in the
top 10 among the 230 metropolitan areas tracked in the report. Merced took
the top spot, with one in every 66 households receiving a foreclosure
filing during the month, followed by Stockton at No. 2, Modesto at No. 3
and Riverside-San Bernardino at No. 4. Other California cities on the list
were Vallejo-Fairfield at No. 6 and Bakersfield at No. 8.

Three Florida cities registered foreclosure rates among the top 10:
Cape Coral-Fort Myers at No. 5; Port Lucie-Fort Pierce at No. 9; and Fort
Lauderdale at No. 10.

With one in every 116 households received foreclosure filings in April,
the Las Vegas metro area documented the nation’s seventh highest metro
rate.

Report methodology

The RealtyTrac Monthly U.S. Foreclosure Market Report provides a count
of the total number of properties with at least one foreclosure filing
reported during the month — broken out by type of filing at the state and
national level. Data is also available at the individual county level.
RealtyTrac’s report incorporates documents filed in all three phases of
foreclosure: Default — Notice of Default (NOD) and Lis Pendens (LIS);
Auction — Notice of Trustee Sale and Notice of Foreclosure Sale (NTS and
NFS); and Real Estate Owned, or REO properties (that have been foreclosed
on and repurchased by a bank). If more than one foreclosure document is
filed against a property during the month — which is extremely rare –
only the most recent filing is counted in the report. The report also
checks if the same type of document was filed against a property in a
previous month. If so, and if that previous filing occurred within the
estimated foreclosure timeframe for the state the property is in, the
report does not count the property in the current month.



U.S. Foreclosure Market Statistics by State — April 2008

Properties with Foreclosure Filings
% %
1/every change change
Rate State X HH from from
Rank Name NOD LIS NTS NFS REO Total (rate) Mar 08 Apr 07

— U.S. 52,216 56,471 56,165 20,927 54,574 243,353 519 4.40 64.75
42 Alabama 1 0 266 0 375 642 3,287 -1.08 -28.59
34 Alaska 0 0 130 0 18 148 1,869 -22.73 70.11
3 Arizona 8 0 8,305 0 3,307 11,620 224 26.32 181.42
27 Arkansas 39 0 894 0 181 1,114 1,143 -7.93 -11.73
2 Ca. 40,294 0 8,822 0 15,567 64,683 204 -0.04 112.04
5 Colorado 6 0 4,154 0 1,840 6,000 349 -2.91 2.99
19 Conn. 0 1,398 3 279 27 1,707 839 -19.71 -59.42
40 Delaware 0 0 0 61 71 132 2,900 -31.25 312.50
District
of
Columbia 0 0 203 0 80 283 1,000 -7.82 4616.67*
4 Florida 0 25,505 46 5,979 3,734 35,264 242 16.56 146.29
7 Georgia 3 0 7,136 0 2,050 9,189 422 -16.82 28.50
36 Hawaii 22 0 181 0 7 210 2,381 75.00 218.18
18 Idaho 396 0 319 0 44 759 811 15.53 79.01
13 Illinois 0 6,106 47 665 1,565 8,383 620 -2.78 1.02
11 Indiana 0 1,462 42 1,936 1,626 5,066 544 -1.04 26.30
38 Iowa 1 0 277 0 250 528 2,501 3.13 21.38
31 Kansas 0 103 5 251 434 793 1,523 11.69 95.80
43 Kentucky 0 102 6 206 196 510 3,702 -26.19 -26.41
39 Louisiana 0 2 1 457 183 643 2,846 2.72 16.06
35 Maine 144 0 149 0 21 314 2,201 60.20 177.88
6 Maryland 0 4,366 12 1,259 415 6,052 380 41.57 479.14*
10 Mass. 0 3,168 3 1,741 114 5,026 539 -9.82 133.99
9 Mich. 1,502 0 5,821 0 2,946 10,269 440 8.16 49.35
32 Minn. 38 0 849 0 518 1,405 1,625 6.20 68.47
45 Miss. 0 0 75 0 100 175 7,094 -6.91 105.88
20 Mo. 866 0 1,145 0 1,040 3,051 860 -9.41 34.05
44 Montana 5 0 96 0 9 110 3,927 -28.57 -0.90
30 Nebraska 0 18 1 146 66 531 1,459 93.80 94.51
1 Nev. 4,301 0 991 0 1,984 7,276 146 -5.00 94.70
21 New
Hamps. 0 0 348 0 319 667 884 61.11 62.29
15 New
Jersey 0 3,935 4 689 515 5,143 675 14.75 64.73
37 New
Mexico 0 277 1 8 68 354 2,401 3.51 25.53
29 New York 0 3,846 9 851 990 5,696 1,388 11.95 38.96
28 North
Car. 2,228 0 187 0 886 3,301 1,221 0.09 15.54
49 North
Dakota 0 0 0 1 20 21 14,657 162.50 75.00
8 Ohio 0 3,989 95 3,829 3,767 11,680 432 3.61 2.18
22 Okla. 677 0 479 0 587 1,743 922 20.46 58.74
23 Ore. 1,136 0 411 0 80 1,627 975 -0.37 121.06
33 Penns. 0 1,161 22 1,442 641 3,266 1,670 12.62 36.65
24 Rhode
Island 0 0 391 0 48 439 1,024 10.30 62.59
41 South
Car. 0 0 9 89 564 662 2,984 -28.97 126.71*
47 South
Dakota 0 0 0 29 5 34 10,377 112.50 30.77
14 Tenn. 1,454 0 1,459 0 1,203 4,116 651 5.35 21.17
17 Texas 126 0 7,548 0 3,732 11,406 809 6.60 -0.16
16 Utah 244 0 926 0 148 1,318 684 7.15 63.12
50 Vermont 0 0 0 0 0 0 -100.00 -100.00
12 Virg. 1,691 0 2,293 0 1,243 5,227 618 5.96 259.24*
26 Wash. 34 0 1,927 0 436 2,397 1,126 7.30 36.50
48 West
Virg. 0 0 51 0 24 75 11,704 10.29 -57.14
25 Wisc. 0 1,033 14 708 511 2,266 1,118 9.31 169.76
46 Wyoming 0 0 12 1 19 32 7,474 -60.98 60.00

* Actual increase may not be as high due to data collection changes or
improvements

About RealtyTrac Inc.

Ranked as the third largest real estate site by MediaMetrix and No. 53
on Inc. magazine’s 2006 Inc. 500 list of the nation’s fastest-growing
private companies, RealtyTrac Inc. (http://www.realtytrac.com), is the
leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties, providing all the
resources that home seekers, investors and real estate agents need to
locate, evaluate and buy properties below market value.

Founded in 1996, RealtyTrac publishes the largest and most
comprehensive national database of pre-foreclosure, foreclosure, For Sale
By Owner, resale and new homes, with more than 1 million properties across
the country, property reports, productivity tools and extensive
professional resources. RealtyTrac hosts nearly 3 million unique visitors
monthly and has been chosen to supply foreclosure data to MSN Real Estate,
Yahoo! Real Estate and The Wall Street Journal’s Real Estate Journal. For
current news and information regarding foreclosure-related issues and
trends, visit our blog at http://www.ForeclosurePulse.com.



See Also

• Realtors(R) Press Congress to Jumpstart Housing Stimulus Legislation
• R.D. Olson Development Sells Two California Hotels
• Media Update: REITs Continue Outperformance vs. Broader Market with Strong April Returns

Source: Real Estate Newswire