Overall Foreclosure Report — default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions from RealtyTrac

  • 303,879 U.S. properties during August, a 12% increase from the previous month and a 27% increase from August 2007, though this was muted by “a big spike in activity last August.” August filings were 11 percent higher than the previous record of 273,001 set in May. 
  • One in every 416 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing during the month
  • REO Properties more than doubled from a year ago to 90,893.
  • New Jersey ranks sixth in terms of the percentage increase in filings, month over month – 40% increase in August over July 2008, and the foreclosure rate ranked 11th – one filing in 536 households
  • New York ranked 33rd at one in 1,444 households

“In August the total number of U.S. properties that received foreclosure filings as well as the national foreclosure rate were both the highest we’ve seen in any month since we began issuing our report in January 2005”

– James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac.

Home Sale & Price Reports

  • Home prices: 15.9% decline YoY in June in 20 U.S. metropolitan areas, according to the S&P/Case- Shiller index, though the NAR reports a 4-7% decline
    • Additional 10% decline expected by Lehman through the end of 2009
    • NAR expects prices to increase 2-4% in 2009
  • New Home Sales:  508k in 2008, 463k in 2009, 35% and 40% fewer home-sales, respectively, than 775k in 2007.
  • Unsold Homes:
    • 3.9 million unsold existing single-family homes, the most since at least 1982.
    • There is an 11.1 month supply of existing unsold homes at the current sales pace, up from 4.6 months in September 2005.
    • The Pending Home Sales index in the Northeast fell 7.5 percent to 73.6 in July and is 13.2 percent below a year ago
    • The PHSI for the US fell 3.2 percent to 86.5 from an upwardly revised reading of 89.4 in June
    • “The Northeast region retreated following a robust gain in the previous month” – Laurence Yun, NAR Economist

“The chickens have come home to roost. Real estate inflation bailed out an awful lot of bad loans.”

—Jim Croft, founder of the Mortgage Asset Research Institute