Foreclosures fall to pre-recession levels

U.S. foreclosure activity fell last month to its lowest level since before the Great Recession began, driven by precipitous declines in foreclosure filings in Ohio and most other states, according to the latest figures from market tracker, RealtyTrac.

There were 82,972 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings in September, down 13 percent from August, and down 24 percent from a year ago to the lowest level since December 2005 — two years before the recession began, according to RealtyTrac’s latest foreclosure market report.

In Ohio, the number of September foreclosure filings — including default notices, scheduled auctions or bank repossessions — fell in by 22 percent from August, and by 36 percent from September a year ago to 3,801.

On a quarterly basis, there were 293,190 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings in the quarter that ended in September, up 4 percent from the same three-month period a year ago, but down 10 percent from the same quarter a year ago. The most recent quarter was the fourth consecutive quarter in which foreclosure activity decreased on a year-over-year basis.

“Foreclosure activity has been on a steady slide downward over the past six years, finally dropping back below pre-crisis levels in September,” said Daren Blomquist, senior vice president at ATTOM Data Solutions — RealtyTrac’s parent. “While we know that the national foreclosure problem has been dying a long, slow death for quite some time, the final nail in the coffin of the foreclosure crisis is the year-over-year decrease in the average foreclosure timeline nationwide that we saw in THE (third quarter) 2016 — the first time that’s happened since we began tracking foreclosure timelines in THE (first quarter) 2007.”

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