Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, New York, Among Cities With Biggest Quarterly Increases
  Foreclosure Activity Still Down From Year Ago in Majority of U.S. Metros

IRVINE, Calif. – April 26, 2012 – RealtyTrac® (www.realtytrac.com), the leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties, today released its Q1 2012 Metropolitan Foreclosure Market Report, which shows first quarter foreclosure activity increased from the previous quarter in 114 out of the nation’s 212 metropolitan areas with a population of 200,000 or more.

First quarter foreclosure activity increased from the previous quarter in 26 out of the nation’s 50 largest metro areas, led by Pittsburgh (up 49 percent), Indianapolis (up 37 percent), Philadelphia (up 30 percent), New York (up 24 percent), Raleigh, N.C. (up 23 percent), and Virginia Beach, Va. (up 22 percent).

The biggest quarterly decreases in foreclosure activity among the 50 largest metro areas were in Portland, Ore. (down 28 percent), Las Vegas (down 26 percent), Providence, R.I. (down 24 percent), Salt Lake City (down 22 percent), Boston (down 21 percent), and San Jose, Calif. (down 21 percent).

“First quarter metro foreclosure trends were a mixed bag,” said Brandon Moore, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “While the majority of metro areas continued to show foreclosure activity down from a year ago, more than half reported increasing foreclosure activity from the previous quarter — an early sign that long-dormant foreclosures are coming out of hibernation in many local markets.”    

Foreclosure activity down on annual basis in 64 percent of metros
Despite the quarterly increase in more than half of the metro areas tracked in the report, first quarter foreclosure activity was still down compared to the first quarter of 2011 in 135 out of the 212 metro areas (64 percent).

Thirty-three of the nation’s 50 largest metro areas posted year-over-year decreases in foreclosure activity, led by Las Vegas (down 61 percent), Seattle (down 53 percent), Austin, Texas (down 51 percent), Salt Lake City (down 49 percent), and Buffalo, N.Y. (down 47 percent).

The biggest annual increases in foreclosure activity among the 50 largest metro areas were in Orlando (up 52 percent), Indianapolis (up 41 percent), Hartford, Conn. (up 38 percent), Miami (up 37 percent), and Philadelphia (up 33 percent).

Top 20 metro foreclosure rates
Stockton, Calif., posted the nation’s highest metropolitan foreclosure rate in the first quarter. One in every 60 housing units in the Stockton metro area had a foreclosure filing during the quarter — more than three times the national average. There were a total of 3,912 Stockton properties with foreclosure filings in the first quarter, down 13 percent from the fourth quarter of 2011 and down 19 percent from the first quarter of 2011.

Nearby Modesto, Calif., posted a foreclosure rate that was fractionally lower than the foreclosure rate in Stockton — giving Modesto the nation’s second highest metro foreclosure rate. Ten other California cities joined Stockton and Modesto among the nation’s Top 20 metro foreclosure rates: Riverside-San Bernardino (No. 3), Vallejo-Fairfield (No. 4), Merced (No. 5), Sacramento (No. 6), Bakersfield (No. 7), Visalia-Porterville (No. 10), Fresno (No. 12), Oxnard-Thousand Oaks (No. 14), Chico (No. 18), and Santa Rosa-Petaluma (No. 20).

Reporting one in every 82 housing units with a foreclosure filing in the first quarter, the foreclosure rate in the Las Vegas-Paradise metro area dropped to eighth highest nationwide thanks to a substantial drop-off in foreclosure activity. A total of 10,192 Las Vegas properties had a foreclosure filing during the quarter, down 26 percent from the fourth quarter and down 61 percent from the first quarter of 2011.

A total of 20,787 properties in the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, Ariz., metro area had a foreclosure filing in the first quarter, down 5 percent from the previous quarter and down 43 percent from the first quarter of 2011. That gave Phoenix the nation’s ninth highest metro foreclosure rate for the quarter: one in every 87 housing units with a foreclosure filing.

Other metro areas with foreclosure rates among the Top 20 included Atlanta (No. 11), Miami (No. 13), Orlando (No. 15), Rockford, Ill., (No. 16), Chicago (No. 17), and Prescott, Ariz. (No. 19).

Top 20 Metro Foreclosure Rates Q1 2012

Top foreclosure rates among 50 largest metros
The Riverside-San Bernardino metro area in Southern California registered the highest foreclosure rate among the nation’s 50 largest metropolitan areas: one in every 62 housing units with a foreclosure filing during the quarter — more than three times the national average.

Seven other metros among the nation’s 50 largest registered foreclosure rates that were more than twice the national average: Sacramento, Calif. (one in 77 housing units), Las Vegas (one in 82 housing units), Phoenix (one in 87 housing units), Atlanta (one in 90 housing units), Miami (one in 95 housing units), Orlando (one in 101 housing units), and Chicago (one in 107 housing units).

Report Methodology
The RealtyTrac U.S. Foreclosure Market Report provides a count of the total number of properties with at least one foreclosure filing entered into the RealtyTrac database during the quarter — broken out by type of filing. Some foreclosure filings entered into the database during a quarter may have been recorded in previous quarters. Data is collected from more than 2,200 counties nationwide, and those counties account for more than 90 percent of the U.S. population. 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). For the quarterly report, if more than one foreclosure document is received for a property during the quarter, only the most recent filing is counted in the report. The quarterly report also checks if the same type of document was filed against a property previously. If so, and if that previous filing occurred within the estimated foreclosure timeframe for the state where the property is located, the report does not count the property in the current quarter.

Report License
The RealtyTrac U.S. Foreclosure Market Report is the result of a proprietary evaluation of information compiled by RealtyTrac; the report and any of the information in whole or in part can only be quoted, copied, published, re-published, distributed and/or re-distributed or used in any manner if the user specifically references RealtyTrac as the source for said report and/or any of the information set forth within the report.

About RealtyTrac Inc.
RealtyTrac (www.realtytrac.com) is the leading online marketplace of foreclosure properties, with more than 2 million default, auction and bank-owned listings from over 2,200 U.S. counties, along with detailed property, loan and home sales data. Hosting more than 3 million unique monthly visitors, RealtyTrac provides innovative technology solutions and practical education resources to facilitate buying, selling and investing in real estate. RealtyTrac’s foreclosure data has also been used by the Federal Reserve, FBI, U.S. Senate Joint Economic Committee and Banking Committee, U.S. Treasury Department, and numerous state housing and banking departments to help evaluate foreclosure trends and address policy issues related to foreclosures.

###
Media Contacts: