U.S foreclosure filings take small dip in November, but trouble looms

Seasonal factors depressed new national foreclosure filings in November, according to a report released today by RealtyTrac, but storm clouds continue to gather for a forthcoming downpour of activity.

Foreclosure filings were reported on 224,394 U.S. properties, or one in every 579 homes, in November, 3 percent fewer than were filed in October and 14 percent fewer than the number filed in November 2010. However, that represents a step back from October, which had 31 percent fewer filings on a year-over-year basis.

“November’s numbers suggest a new set of incoming foreclosure waves,” RealtyTrac co-founder James Saccacio said in a statement, “many of which may roll into the market as REOs or short sales sometime early next year … Overall foreclosure activity is down 14 percent from a year ago, the smallest annual decrease over the past 12 months.”

New default notices were filed for 71,730 properties in November, an 8 percent decrease from the prior month, and a 9 percent fall from November a year ago.

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Foreclosure auctions jumped 13 percent since October, but fell 17 percent from the previous year, and lenders repossessed 56,124 properties, a 17 percent decrease on both month-over-month and year-over-year bases.

Just one in every 1,587 New York State homes had foreclosure filings, the eighth lowest rate in the country. Compare that to Nevada, where one in every 175 properties were hit with foreclosures, the highest rate in the nation. California and Arizona rounded out the top three in terms of foreclosure rate, while North Dakota had the smallest rate.

New York foreclosures fell 3.2 percent from October and 42.9 percent from November 2010, the 16th largest year-over-year decline in the nation. — Adam Fusfeld