Foreclosures inched up 2% to 148,054 filings in May, according to RealtyTrac’s foreclosure report.
Despite the slight increase, foreclosures are still down 28% from May 2012.
The minuscule increase is attributed to an 11% month-over-month increase in bank repossessions; however, REO activity is still down 29% compared to last year.
In addition, foreclosure starts escalated 4% from the previous month but were still 33% lower than a year ago levels.
“Foreclosure activity continued to bounce back in some markets where it may have appeared the foreclosure problem had been knocked out by an aggressive combination of foreclosure prevention efforts over the past two years,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac.
“Still, the emerging housing recovery has strengthened most local markets enough to quickly shake off a few more blows from these nagging foreclosures,” Blomquist said.
Switching gears, Nevada foreclosure activity increased annually in May after 27 consecutive months of annual decreases, but the state’s foreclosure rate still slipped to the second highest among states.
Florida came in at number one, with one in every 302 Florida housing units filing for foreclosure in May.
Meanwhile, Ohio posted the third highest state foreclosure rate for the second month in a row, with one in every 584 housing units filing for a foreclosure.
bswanson@housingwire.com
