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SALT LAKE CITY — The number of distressed residential properties has fallen considerably since the housing bubble burst a few years ago. A new report shows that the Beehive State has seen its rate of foreclosures decline nearly 45 percent from last year at the same time.
RealtyTrac released its Midyear 2013 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, which showed a 19 percent decrease in the total of properties with foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — during the first half of 2013 and down 23 percent from the first half of last year.
The report also showed that one in 164 of all U.S. housing units had at least one foreclosure filing in the first six months of the year.
Utah ranked No. 16 in the quarterly report released by the Irvine-Calif.-based real estate research firm, with one in 194 housing units registering a foreclosure filing.
The report indicated that 127,790 U.S. properties had foreclosure filings in June, a 14 percent decrease from the previous month and down 35 percent from a year ago to the lowest monthly level since December 2006. Nationally, foreclosure starts in June dropped 21 percent from the previous month and fell 45 percent from a year ago to the lowest monthly level since December 2005.
“Halfway through 2013 it is becoming increasingly evident that while foreclosures are no longer a problem nationally, they continue to be a thorn in the side of several state and local markets, particularly where a backlog of delayed distress has built up thanks to a lengthy foreclosure process,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president for RealtyTrac.
The report showed Florida posted the nation’s highest state foreclosure in the first half of the year at 1.74 percent of housing units with a foreclosure filing — or one in every 58 — during the six-month period, nearly three times the national average.
Nevada posted the nation’s second highest foreclosure rate in the first half of the year with one in every 71 housing units reporting a foreclosure filing during the period. Illinois ranked third with a foreclosure rate of 1.20 percent or one in 83 housing units with a distress filing during the first half of 2013.
Activity in the first half of the year climbed 2 percent from a year ago in Ohio, helping the Buckeye State post the country’s fourth highest foreclosure rate at one in every 104 housing units reporting a filing. Georgia ranked fifth with 0.86 percent of housing units with a foreclosure filing — or one in every 117 households — despite a 47 percent year-over-year decline in foreclosure activity.
