Despite a strengthening economy, Delaware’s foreclosure rate remains more than double the national average, according to RealtyTrac, a company that monitors and compiles real estate data. The state ranks third in its foreclosure rate.
Kent County has the highest foreclosure rate, followed by New Castle County and Sussex County.
Similar factors were in place elsewhere in the region, with New, Jersey, Maryland and Delaware ranking one, two and three nationally in foreclosures.
- New Jersey 1 in every 986
- Maryland 1 in every 1111
- Delaware 1 in every 1162
RealtyTrac parent company ATTOM Data Solutions, report shows foreclosure filings were reported on 624,753 U.S. properties in 2018, down 8 percent from 2017 and down 78 percent from a peak of nearly 2.9 million in 2010.
The 624,753 properties with foreclosure filings in 2018 represented 0.47 percent of all U.S. housing units, down from 0.51 percent in 2017 and down from a peak of 2.23 percent in 2010 to the lowest level since 2005.
“Plummeting foreclosure completions combined with consistently falling foreclosure timelines in 2018 provide evidence that most of the distress from the last housing crisis has now been cleaned up,” said Todd Teta, ATTOM’s chief product officer. “But there was also some evidence of distress gradually returning to the housing market in 2018, with foreclosure starts increasing from the previous year in more than one-third of all state and local housing markets.
“Some of that distress was driven by natural disasters, most notably in Houston, where foreclosure starts increased 61 percent,” Teta continued. “But natural disasters do not explain the increase in markets such as Detroit, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Milwaukee and Austin — all of which posted double-digit percentage increases in foreclosure starts in 2018,” Teta stated.
States that saw the biggest decline in foreclosure starts from last year included Rhode Island(down 39 percent); Hawaii (down 26 percent); North Carolina (down 24 percent); Washington(down 24 percent); and Connecticut (down 23 percent).
Bucking the national trend were 18 states posted year-over-year increases in foreclosure starts in 2018, including Minnesota (up 29 percent); Texas (up 15 percent); Michigan (up 15 percent); Florida (up 13 percent); Louisiana (up 5 percent); and Delaware (up 2 percent).
