Two faces of foreclosure: A comparison of foreclosure activity in the Bay area and New York

July 22nd, 2007

RealtyTrac.com, an online research and marketing website dealing with foreclosures and other real estate issues, has prepared a report on foreclosures around the country. According to it the number of foreclosure notices filed has gone up by 87% throughout the country. The term “foreclosure notices” encompasses all the three stages of a foreclosure. It refers to default notices as well as notices for trustee sales and repossession of property.

While not all foreclosure notices end in repossession, the study gives a good idea about the situation in various parts of the country.

Though the percentage of foreclosure notices is high, the situation is not the same all over the country. In some regions the situation is alarming while other places do not reflect the national figure.

In the Bay area, foreclosures are presenting a serious problem for homeowners. According to the RealtyTrac report the number of foreclosure notices in this area was 5018 in June. This number is significantly higher than the figures for June 2006 which stood at 1780.

Default notices were served to 3383 homes in June 2007 as compared to 1460 in June 2006. Of the nine counties in this region, Alameda and Contra Costa ranked the highest closely followed by Solano. These counties also had the highest number of notices for trustee sales. The number of bank possessions too showed a dramatic jump from a mere 39 in June 2006 to 624 this year.

Taken altogether, the most foreclosure activity took place in Solano. Here there was one foreclosure for every 149 households. The least activity was in Maine County which had one foreclosure for every 2625 households and San Francisco which had one foreclosure notice for every 2179 households.

It is significant that California was second when it came to foreclosures in the whole country. This state also had six of the top ten metropolitan areas experiencing foreclosure activity.

In New York however the situation is vastly different. While the region has seen its fair share of foreclosures the rate at which they are taking place is slower than in the rest of the country.

According to the RealtyTrac study, the increase in the number of foreclosure filings was 42 % in New York this year as compared to June 2006. This is at a time when the national rates showed a 87% increase.

Another research website PropertyShark.com conducted a study which showed that the number of foreclosure auctions in New York City increased by 19% in comparison to last year. Elsewhere in the country the same figures were as high as 202 %.