2009 Metro Foreclosures Show Spreading Problems
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The nation’s metro-area foreclosures continue to be concentrated in California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona — but homeowner losses are spreading to other cities as well. On the good side, a number of metro areas show declining foreclosure rates.
Figures for 2009 by RealtyTrac, the leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties, show that of the 20 metro areas with the highest foreclosure rate all are located in California (9), Florida (8), Nevada (2) and Arizona (1). The rate is determined by the percentage of homes in the housing stock that have received foreclosure notices of some type — default notices, scheduled foreclosure auctions and bank repossessions.
Topping the list are Las Vegas (12.04% of the housing stock has received one or more foreclosure notices), Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL (11.87%) and Merced, CA (10.10%). Nationwide, 2.21 percent of the housing stock received a foreclosure notice in 2009.
In terms of raw numbers you’ll find the most foreclosures in Los Angeles (175,810), Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL (172,894), Riverside-San Bernadino-Ontario, CA (126,376), and Chicago-Napierville-Joliet, IL (119,662). For context, National Association of Home Builders reports that a total of 374,000 new homes were sold in 2009.
“While it was expected that cities from states with the highest levels of foreclosure activity would top the charts, there is evidence that we’re entering a new wave of foreclosures, driven more by unemployment and economic hardship than what we’ve seen over the past few years,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “Areas like Provo, Utah, Fayetteville, Ark., Portland, Ore., and Rockford, Ill., all posted foreclosure rates above the U.S. average in 2009. And markets like Honolulu, Minneapolis and Seattle saw foreclosure activity increase at more than twice the national pace over the past 12 months — although all three of those markets still had 2009 foreclosure rates that were at or below the U.S. average.”
Winners & Losers
For those hoping that 2009 would be calmer than 2008, that was the case in some areas but not others.
Areas which saw a decline in foreclosure filings included Stickton, CA (-7.51%), Denver-Aurora, CO (-11.08%), Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA (-12.02%), Toledo, OH (-7.52%), Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, OH (-19.00%), Worcester, MA (-13.45), Rochester, NY (-31.97%) and Lincoln, NE (-80.11%).
Unfortunately, a number of metro areas saw huge increases in foreclosure activity according to the RealtyTrac data. Hard-hit areas include Houma-Bayou Cane Tribideau, LA (up 378.72% in 2009 when compared with 2008), Roanoke, VA (+351.50%), Birmingham-Hoover, AL (+267.21%), Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, SC (+267.21) and Honolulu, HI (up 141.98%).
Understated Numbers
While foreclosure levels in 2009 saw a 21 percent increase nationwide over 2008 according to RealtyTrac, a large number of homes which could have received foreclosure notices did not. Why? Because the owners had enrolled in the government’s Making Home Affordable loan modification program or benefited from state and local foreclosure moratoriums.
How many foreclosures have been prevented or suspended by these efforts? No doubt the answer is well into the hundreds of thousands.
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