In the first half of this year, there were nearly 87,000 California properties with foreclosure filings – a 48 percent drop from the previous six months and a 60 percent drop from a year ago.
“California is moving out of the spotlight as one of the epicenters of foreclosure activity,” Daren Blomquist of RealtyTrac said.
RealtyTrac’s Blomquist says Florida now has the country’s top foreclosure rate. California has slipped to number 12 in the list of metro areas with the highest foreclosure rates. Blomquist points out — that’s after five years of consistently being in the top 10.
“If you compare California to Florida which is continuing to see increases in foreclosure activity, really it boils down to the fact that California had a more streamlined foreclosure process," Blomquist said.
The state was able to work through the inventory of distressed properties more quickly during the recession. Now, there’s a big slowdown in California foreclosures as the recently enacted Homeowner’s Bill of Rights is making it more difficult for lenders to repossess homes.
Nevada posted the nation’s second highest foreclosure rate in the first half of 2013. Blomquist says more than 16,000 Nevada properties were subject to a foreclosure filing — about 1,800 of them were in Reno.
“That was a 17 percent increase from the previous six months and so that’s why we’re seeing that jump there is that rebound following that legislation.”'
That legislation Blomquist is talking about is a Nevada foreclosure prevention law that recently expired, prompting foreclosure activity to bounce back. He says Reno “foreclosure starts” hit a 20-month high in May.
