Atlantic City, Miami Lead U.S. Foreclosures

Foreclosure activity in five of the country’s largest cities rose year-over-year in November: New York City (up 71%), Houston (70%), Philadelphia (43%), Boston (27%) and Baltimore (22%).

Among the states, Florida continues to lead with one foreclosure in every 462 housing units, a drop of 4% month-over-month and down 15% year-over-year. For 13 of the past 14 months, Florida has led the nation in foreclosures. Ranked second is New Jersey (one foreclosure for every 478 housing units), Maryland (one in 581), Delaware (one in 693) and Utah (one in 750). Utah climbed from 12th into the top five with an 83% month-over-month increase in real-estate owned (REO) activity and its first year-over-year increase (20%) in nearly 3.5 years.

The top 10 metropolitan areas for foreclosures in November were:

1. Atlantic City, N.J.: one in every 289 housing units
2. Miami, Fla.: one in 394
3. Jacksonville, Fla.: one in 395
4. Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, Fla.: one in 399
5. Orlando, Fla.: one in 408
6. Pensacola, Fla.: one in 428
7. Tampa, Fla.: one in 432
8. Trenton, N.J.: one in 456
9. Lakeland, Fla.: one in 461
10. Ocala, Fla.: one in 489

Atlantic City’s REO activity jumped 264% year-over-year, while Miami dropped out of first place with a 22% decrease in foreclosures, compared with November 2013.

A RealtyTrac executive said:

Foreclosure rates on 2014-originated loans are actually higher than 2013-originated loans nationwide and in many markets, indicating that lenders are open to a slightly higher level of risk than we’ve seen over the past five years of extremely tight lending standards. But it’s unlikely that lenders will dial up that risk level too quickly going forward given that many are still dealing with working through a lengthy and messy foreclosure process on risky loans from the last loose lending spree.

In November, a total of 112,498 U.S. properties received default notices, were involved in foreclosure auctions or were repossessed by the lenders.

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