Bank Repossessions Set New Monthly Record Overall Foreclosure Activity Surpasses 300,000 For 15th Straight Month

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By RealtyTrac Staff

RealtyTrac® (http://www.realtytrac.com/gateway_co.asp?accnt=137300), the leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties, today released its U.S. Foreclosure Market Report™ for May 2010, which shows that foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — were reported on 322,920 properties in May, a 3 percent decrease from the previous month and an increase of less than 1 percent from May 2009. One in every 400 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing during the month.

“The numbers in May continued and confirmed the trends we noticed in April: overall foreclosure activity leveling off while lenders work through the backlog of distressed properties that have built up over the past 20 months,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “Defaults and scheduled auctions combined increased by 28 percent from 2007 to 2008 and another 32 percent from 2008 to 2009 — creating a build-up of delayed bank repossessions. Lenders appear to be ramping up the pace of completing those forestalled foreclosures even while the inflow of delinquencies into the foreclosure process has slowed.”

Bank Repossessions Set New Monthly Record

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