Foreclosures in April jumped outpacing March's rate with a record 342,038 homes receiving at least one foreclosure-related notice. Foreclosure notices include the following: notices of default, auction notices or undergoing bank repossessions, according to a report released by RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosed properties.
This means that one in every 374 U.S. households received a filing during the month, the highest monthly rate on record.
On a year over year, foreclosure jumped 32 percent compared to the same month last year with Nevada, Florida and California exhibiting the highest rates.
April was the second consecutive month with more than 300,000 homes receiving a foreclosure filing, as the number of borrowers with mortgage troubles failed to abate.
"April was a shocker," said Rick Sharga, a spokesman for RealtyTrac. "I would have bet on a dip because March foreclosures were so high. Instead, filings increased 1 percent.
Nearly 64,000 homes were repossessed by banks. More than 1.3 million homes have now been lost to foreclosure since August 2007 when the market meltdown started.
Bank repossessions actually fell 11% for the month, compared with March which can be attributed to the government legislations and lending companies’ moratoriums to help prevent foreclosures process. Because of the moratoriums, fewer loans entered the process in past months but with the moratorium over, the volume of foreclosure filings is expected to increase.
The top ten states accounted for 75 percent of all foreclosure activity and can be categorized into two, namely: the one-time bubble markets and the rust belt.
One-time bubble markets included California with 96,560 filings followed by Florida, Nevada and Arizona with 64,588, 16,266 and 16,244 respectively.
They are followed by rust belt states Illinois (13,647), Ohio (12,324) and Michigan (10,830). Georgia (11,521), Texas (11,314) and Virginia (6,254) rounding up the top 10 list.
Foreclosure Rate
Nevada had one filing for every 68 households, down 18 percent from March but still the nation's highest rate. Florida had one for every 135 households California with one in every 138 households receiving a foreclosure filing.
Completing the top 10 list were Arizona, Idaho, Utah, Georgia, Illinois, Colorado and Ohio. In Ohio, one out of every 411 households received a foreclosure filing last month.
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