RealtyTrac (www.realtytrac.com) figures indicate Delaware remains well below the national rate for home foreclosures, with New Castle County faring much better than Kent and Sussex.
Nationwide, April foreclosure activity decreased 5 percent from the previous month and was down 14 percent from April 2011.
One in every 698 U.S. housing units had a foreclosure filing during the month.
In Delaware, Sussex and Kent counties saw the highest rate of foreclosures by a wide margin. Kent had a rate of one foreclosure for every 1,167 homes, with Sussex at one in every 1,323 homes.
By contrast, New Castle County’s foreclosure rate was one for every 5,438 homes.
Smyrna and Dover had the highest foreclosure rates in Kent County, with Georgetown, Lincoln and Delmara areas at the top in Sussex County. Rehoboth Beach had a rate of one foreclosure for every 7,703 homes.
Nationally, Nevada came in with a rate of one foreclosure for every 300 homes, with North Dakota’s foreclosures virtually non-existent at one for every 40,000 homes.
“Rising foreclosure activity in many state and local markets in April was masked at the national level by sizable decreases in hard-hit foreclosure states like California, Arizona and Nevada,” Brandon Moore, CEO of RealtyTrac, stated in a release. “Those three states, and several other non-judicial foreclosure states like them, more efficiently processed foreclosures last year, resulting in fewer catch-up foreclosures this year.
Moore noted that the wave of foreclosures has spread east after peaking in the west.
“In addition, more distressed loans are being diverted into short sales rather than becoming completed
foreclosures,” Moore continued. “Our preliminary first quarter sales data shows that pre-foreclosure sales — typically short sales — are on pace to outnumber sales of bank-owned properties during the quarter in California, Arizona and 10 other states.”
Short sales involve the seller and lender agreeing to a sale. Both generally take a loss, with the borrower able to avoid the damage to his or her credit that would come from a foreclosure.
Click below for an interactive map of foreclosure rates from RealtyTrac. – Doug Rainey
U.S. Foreclosure Trends and Foreclosure Market Statistics | RealtyTrac.
