NYC foreclosure auctions rise for first time since recession

The number of scheduled foreclosure auctions for residential homes, condominiums and cooperatives rose last year in the city for the first time since the Great Recession, new figures from PropertyShark show.

The Bronx saw the largest jump, rising by 109 percent to 341 auctions in 2013 from 163 in 2012, the data show. The next highest increase in foreclosure auctions was in Brooklyn, where the numbers rose 45 percent to 236 in 2013 from 163 in 2012. That was followed by Queens, with an 11 percent increase to 395 auctions from 355. Staten Island rose by 4 percent to 74 auctions from 71 in 2012.

In contrast, Manhattan bucked the city trend, with the number of scheduled auctions falling by 20 percent to 122 in 2013 from 152 in 2012, the figures show.

Overall, the number of foreclosure auctions was up by 29 percent to 1168 from 904, the PropertyShark data show.

Even as the auction figures increased last year, they still remained below the typical annual figures from before the foreclosure crisis rocked the housing market from 2008 through 2010.

“You can see where there was a spike in the middle, where the bubble was bursting. But if you look since 2011, the figure is well below what it was in 2005,” Nancy Jorisch, a senior data analyst at PropertyShark, said.

The quarterly data compiled by PropertyShark was for one- and two-family homes, as well as residential cooperatives and condominiums in all five boroughs from the first quarter of 2005 through the fourth quarter of 2013.

It was not clear why the numbers were rising in the outer boroughs last year, but in some instances — the Bronx, for example — it may have to do with a slow foreclosure process in the borough’s court system, Jorisch said.

“There are some properties that are just coming to auction for the first time in 2013, but had been lingering for some time,” she said. For example more than 70 of the new auctions scheduled last year in the Bronx were from foreclosure actions that began in 2009, she said.

Source: PropertyShark (click to enlarge)