One of the biggest scars from the housing crisis – foreclosures – is rapidly fading away. Foreclosure activity posted a 15 percent month-to-month drop from October to November – the largest monthly drop in three years, RealtyTrac reports in its latest foreclosure report. What’s more, foreclosure filings have posted a 37 percent decrease from year ago levels.
Reports on foreclosure filings, default notices, auctions, and bank repossessions all showed big declines in the latest report.
“I think that [the housing crisis is] really in the rear-view mirror,” Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac, told ABC News.
The number of homes entering the foreclosure process has dropped by two-thirds since the peak of the housing crisis in 2010. The number of homes that have started the foreclosure process has fallen to its lowest level since December 2005.
“While some of the decrease in November can be attributed to seasonality, the depth and breadth of the decrease provides strong evidence that we are entering the ninth inning of this foreclosure crisis with the outcome all but guaranteed,” says Blomquist. “While foreclosures will likely continue to stage a weak rally in certain markets next year as the last of the distress left over from the Great Recession is dealt with, it is highly unlikely that there will be a foreclosure comeback that poses any major threat to the solid housing recovery that has now taken hold.”
Source: RealtyTrac and “Foreclosures Plunge as Housing Crisis Retreats,” ABC News (Dec. 12, 2013)
