Properties in the United States that started foreclosure process in 2015 has declined 11 percent from 2014 and plunged 73 percent from the peak in 2009 to a 10-year low, according to the recently released Year-End 2015 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report from RealityTrac. That was a total of 569,835 foreclosure filings, down from the more than 2.1 million foreclosures six years ago.
U.S. property foreclose filings in 2015 is reported at 1,083,572, a 3 percent decrease from 2014 filings, and a 62 percent decline from the peak of 2,871,891 foreclosure filings in 2010. The report also said that last year, properties with foreclosure filings are around 1.1 million which is the lowest since the more than 700,000 record in 2006.
Consequently in December, properties with foreclosure filings decreased by 1 percent compared to November, with 103,373 properties. It was a 9 percent decline from the same period in 2014.
Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac., said, "In 2015 we saw a return to normal, healthy foreclosure activity in many markets even as banks continued to clean up some of the last vestiges of distress left over from the last housing crisis."
"The increase in bank repossessions that we saw for the year was evidence of this cleanup phase, which largely involves completing foreclosure on highly distressed, low value properties."
On one hand, 24 states and the District of Columbia saw the opposite of the national trend and recorded an increase in foreclosure activities in 2015 compared to the previous year. For instance, foreclosure activity has increased by 55 percent in Massachusetts, 50 percent in Missouri and 24 percent in New York. This can be largely attributed to local economic problems, according to Blomquist.
Meanwhile, bank repossessions climbed in 2015 after being down in the past four years. Blomquist also noted the 41 percent decline in the median price of bank-owned home last year, which is the biggest cut since 2006.
"That may be surprising to some, but demonstrates that in a healthy real estate market foreclosures are no longer mainstream, but instead are back to being a market niche of properties with problems that many buyers do not want to tackle," Blomquist said.
