Foreclosure filings in Wisconsin were down 12 percent in the third quarter, according to a new report from Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac.
The decline in foreclosure filings in the state is part of a national trend. U.S. foreclosure activity dropped to a five-year low in September, according to RealtyTrac.
Nationally, foreclosure filings were down 7 percent in September compared with the previous month and were down 16 percent from a year ago. September’s total of 180,427 foreclosure filings in the United States. was the lowest since July of 2007, according to RealtyTrac.
The decrease in September helped drop the third quarter foreclosure numbers to the lowest level since the fourth quarter of 2007. Foreclosure filings were reported on 531,576 U.S. properties during the quarter, a decrease of 5 percent from the second quarter and a decrease of 13 percent from the third quarter of 2011 – the ninth consecutive quarter with an annual decrease in foreclosure activity.
However some states, including Florida, Illinois, Ohio, New Jersey and New York, had significant year-over-year increases in foreclosure activity in the third quarter.
“We’ve been waiting for the other foreclosure shoe to drop since late 2010, when questionable foreclosure practices slowed activity to a crawl in many areas, but that other shoe is instead being carefully lowered to the floor and therefore making little noise in the housing market, at least at a national level,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. “Make no mistake, however, the other shoe is dropping quite loudly in certain states, primarily those where foreclosure activity was held back the most last year. Meanwhile, several states where the foreclosure flow was not so dammed up last year could see a roller-coaster pattern in foreclosure activity going forward because of recent legislation or court rulings that substantively change the rules to properly foreclose. A backlog of delayed foreclosures will likely build up in those states as lenders adjust to the new rules, with many of those delayed foreclosures eventually hitting down the road.”
