People living in the country’s priciest and glitziest zip codes haven’t escaped the foreclosure crisis, according to recent data cited by Forbes, with northern North Jersey and southern New York having the largest total number of pricey neighborhoods riddled by foreclosures in the nation. Among these pricey neighborhoods are Great Neck and Old Wesbury.

Loss of income may be the most common reason for foreclosures in pricey neighborhoods but experts say they’re seeing a rise in the number of strategic foreclosures on that end of the market.

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As the effects of lender-imposed foreclosure freezes wear off, an increase in sales of distressed homes in the coming months is likely to put additional downward pressure on U.S. home prices, foreclosure-tracking firm RealtyTrac said in a 2010 sales report today. In total, 831,574 foreclosed U.S. homes sold to third parties last year, a 31 percent decline from 2009, RealtyTrac said. In New York, foreclosure sales also declined by 31 percent year-over-year. But the steep drop-off — a result both of the homebuyer tax credit’s expiration in the third quarter of 2010 and the foreclosure paperwork scandal in the fourth — isn’t likely to last. [more]

Click to enlarge (source: PropertyShark)

Newly scheduled residential foreclosure auctions in New York City hit another low in January, continuing the downward trajectory that began in the aftermath of the so-called “robo-signing” controversy late last year.

According to new data from PropertyShark.com, which tracks the number of foreclosure auctions scheduled for the first time there were just 106 such filings in January, down from 247 in October 2010, when the scandal surfaced and lenders began to impose temporary foreclosure freezes. The city’s peak was 473 newly scheduled foreclosure auctions in June 2009.

Each building class — including co-ops, condos, single-family homes and two-family homes — saw similarly dramatic declines in scheduled auctions of between 40 and 60 percent on a year-over-year basis.
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U.S. foreclosure activity dropped to its lowest level in nearly two years in November, as the country’s biggest lenders put the breaks on their proceedings amid allegations that they’d been taking over properties without properly verifying the paperwork, according to a report from RealtyTrac released today.

The country’s 262,399 foreclosure filings represent a 21 percent month-over-month and a 14 percent year-over-year decline — the largest in almost six years by both measures.

In New York City, there were 863 foreclosure filings last month, down a dramatic 41 percent from the 1,466 filings recorded in October and 56 percent from the 1,949 filings in November 2009. Comments

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Pretty much across the board, U.S. home sales took a third-quarter dive in the wake of the homebuyer tax credit’s expiration. According to the latest data from foreclosure-tracking firm RealtyTrac, sales of distressed residential properties were no exception to that trend, and as buyer demand dropped, discounts became more plentiful.

Nationwide, those who bought homes in some stage of the foreclosure process in July, August and September — that is to say, 25 percent of all U.S. homebuyers — paid an average of 32 percent less than did those who bought homes with healthy financials. That’s the biggest foreclosure discount seen since 2005, said RealtyTrac CEO James Saccacio. [more]

It’s been just over a month since Bank of America, the nation’s largest lender, joined some of its peers in temporarily halting foreclosure proceedings across the country amid reports that their paperwork was rife with errors. Some areas, including New York City, are now beginning to see the effects of the foreclosure freezes.

Today, foreclosure tracking firm RealtyTrac released its data for the month of October, revealing that the number of New York City homes on which lenders scheduled foreclosure auctions declined by 35 percent from the month before. That trend was replicated statewide, where scheduled auctions dropped by 31 percent month-over-month. [more]

Report shows filings up over last year’s levels in most U.S. cities

Foreclosure activity rose on a year-over-year basis in 65 percent of all U.S. metro areas, including New York, during the third quarte [more]

Robo-signing scandal sparks worries about shadow inventory

A record 102,134 U.S. homes were repossessed by banks last month, according to new data from RealtyTrac, in a sign that lenders were finally beginning to make a dent in the nation’s backlog of residential foreclosure properties when allegations of widespread faulty docume [more]

Report reveals biggest discounts are in Brooklyn and Staten Island

Distressed property investors, take note: New York City homes in foreclosure are selling at as much as 43 percent off the average sale price, according to a new second-quarter foreclosure sales report by RealtyTrac, released today. But with inventory levels low, foreclosure sales activity in the city is nonetheless defying the upward nationwide tre [more]

The number of New York City residences entering the foreclosure process surged by nearly 38 percent in August, reversing a six-month trend and suggesting that the foreclosure cycle has yet to fully run its course in [more]