Foreclosure rate up in December but down for the whole year 2014
Foreclosure rates in Boise and nationwide edged up a bit December, the first increase in the number of distressed homes hitting the market in nearly two years. But foreclosure numbers remain far lower than they were a year ago.
Locally, 9 percent of homes sold in December were distressed, an increase from the 5 percent of foreclosure sales or short sales in July, said Marc Lebowitz, executive director of the Ada County Association of Realtors.
Nationally, foreclosures increased 6 percent in December from the prior month to the highest number of filings in 17 months, housing data firm RealtyTrac reported. Over the course of the full year, however, foreclosures are down considerably since 2013 in the Treasure Valley and across the country.
In Ada County, January 2014 had 12 percent of homes fall in the distressed category with pending sales at that time at 14 percent distressed.
Nationally, foreclosure filings in 2014 dropped 18 percent from 2013 to the lowest level since 2006, RealtyTrac reported.
The latest uptick in foreclosures in Ada County may be here to stay for a few months, based on the 10 percent of pending home sales involving distressed homes, Lebowitz said. “There is nothing I can attribute it to,” Lebowitz said. “Something happened in December and it looks like it’s going to continue happening for the next few months.” Lebowitz, though, said this shift does not present any concern. The December percentage may have been higher, but it involved only 36 homes, he said.
Nationally, the higher foreclosure starts isn’t triggering any alarms. “The December surge in foreclosure starts is not a cause for concern, as it comes from a previously existing supply of distressed properties,” said Andres Carbacho-Burgos, senior economist at Moody’s Analytics, which analyzes RealtyTrac foreclosure data. “The national pool of distressed mortgages has not increased despite the surge in foreclosure filings.”
Source: Idaho Business Review Teya Vitu