NOD Upswing

N-O-Default notices rise

A report by RealtyTrac says first-time default notices were
filed on 78,880 homes last month, marking a nine-month high and
up 33 percent from July. It was the biggest increase since
August 2007. Even so, notices were down 18 percent from the same
month last year and were down 44 percent from the monthly peak
reached in April 2009 during the tail end of the recession. The
rise in default filings did not suggest that a new foreclosure
problem was on the horizon, but that some of the backlog related
to documentation problems was being worked out of the system,
said Mr. Sharga, senior vice president at RealtyTrac.
Foreclosure activity was halted temporarily late last year due
to claims that lenders relied on "robo-signing," where documents
were signed without reviewing the case files.

Total foreclosure filings—which include default notices,
scheduled auctions and repossessions—were sent to 228,098 homes,
a 7 percent increase from July but down 33 percent from August
2010. Bank repossessions fell 4 percent to a six-month low of
64,813 homes. Repossessions have come down 37 percent from the
peak of 102,134 hit in September 2010. Nevada once again had the
highest state foreclosure rate with one in every 118 homes
receiving a foreclosure filing in August. Nevada has held the
top spot for over four years. Even so, Nevada saw a 3 percent
decrease in filings as scheduled auctions and bank seizures
eased.