RealtyTrac: U.S. Foreclosure Activity Down In March, Q1 - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - RealtyTrac, an online marketplace for foreclosure properties, reported Thursday that March and first-quarter foreclosure activity in the U.S. declined 23 percent each year-over-year. Foreclosure activity in March increased 4 percent from February, driven by rising foreclosure starts and auctions, while first-quarter foreclosure activity declined 3 percent from the preceding quarter.

In its U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, the agency noted that foreclosure filings - default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions - were reported on 117,485 U.S. properties in March. A total of 341,670 U.S. properties had a foreclosure notice in the first quarter. The report noted that one in every 385 U.S. housing units had a foreclosure filing in the first quarter.

The report noted that March was the 42nd consecutive month where U.S. foreclosure activity decreased from a year ago, helping to drop first quarter foreclosure activity to the lowest level since the second quarter of 2007.

The monthly increase in foreclosure activity was driven by a 7 percent month-over-month increase in foreclosure starts- the initial public notice starting the foreclosure process - and a 6 percent monthly increase in scheduled foreclosure auctions.

Lenders repossessed 28,840 U.S. properties in March, down 34 percent from a year ago and down 5 percent from the previous month.

Meanwhile foreclosure starts in the first quarter increased from a year ago in 19 states.

Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac, "Now that the foreclosure deluge has dried up, banks are turning their attention back to properties that have been sitting in foreclosure limbo for some time. This is most evident in judicial foreclosure states that were more likely to have impediments in the foreclosure process, but there are also signs of this catch-up trend happening in some non-judicial states like California, where an increasing number of judicial foreclosure filings boosted foreclosure starts in the first quarter."