Foreclosure Activity Hits Record High in Third Quarter

U.S. Foreclosure Activity Sets New Quarterly Record, Up 23 Percent From Q3 2008

IRVINE, Calif. – Oct. 15, 2009 — RealtyTrac® (www.realtytrac.com), the leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties, today released its U.S. Foreclosure Market Report™ for Q3 2009, which shows that foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — were reported on 937,840 properties in the third quarter, a 5 percent increase from the previous quarter and an increase of nearly 23 percent from Q3 2008. One in every 136 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing during the quarter — the highest quarterly foreclosure rate since RealtyTrac began issuing its report in the first quarter of 2005.

Foreclosure filings were reported on 343,638 properties in September, a 4 percent decrease from the previous month but a 29 percent increase from September 2008. Despite the monthly decrease, September’s total was still the third highest monthly total since the RealtyTrac report began in January 2005, behind only July and August of this year.

“Bank repossessions, or REOs, jumped 21 percent from the second quarter to the third quarter, corresponding to jumps in defaults and scheduled auctions in the previous two quarters,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “REO activity increased from the previous quarter in all but two states and the District of Columbia, indicating that lenders may be starting to work through some of the pent-up foreclosure inventory caused by legislative delays, loan modification efforts and high volumes of distressed properties.”

Report methodology
The RealtyTrac U.S. Foreclosure Market Report provides a count of the total number of properties with at least one foreclosure filing reported during the month or quarter — broken out by type of filing at the state and national level. Data is also available at the individual county level for both Q1 2009 and March 2009. Data is collected from more than 2,200 counties nationwide, and those counties account for more than 90 percent of the U.S. population. RealtyTrac’s report incorporates documents filed in all three phases of foreclosure: Default — Notice of Default (NOD) and Lis Pendens (LIS); Auction — Notice of Trustee Sale and Notice of Foreclosure Sale (NTS and NFS); and Real Estate Owned, or REO properties (that have been foreclosed on and repurchased by a bank). If more than one foreclosure document is filed against a property during the month or quarter, only the most recent filing is counted in the report.

U.S. Foreclosure Market Data by State – Q3 2009

(NOTE: Click on a column heading to sort)

Rate Rank	State Name	NOD	LIS	NTS	NFS	REO	Total ▴	1/every X HH (rate)	%Change from Q2 09	%Change from Q3 08
--	United States	153,255	188,986	263,957	94,590	237,052	937,840	136	5.40	22.50
3	California	111,741	1	87,377	0	50,935	250,054	53	-1.52	18.60
4	Florida	1	95,790	1	39,403	21,729	156,924	56	-0.71	23.27
2	Arizona	20	0	36,176	0	14,146	50,342	53	5.07	24.55
1	Nevada	19,949	0	16,329	0	11,647	47,925	23	9.68	58.88
10	Illinois	0	18,585	1	8,980	9,704	37,270	141	13.68	30.29
8	Michigan	11,454	0	10,575	0	14,997	37,026	122	9.50**	22.31**
7	Georgia	53	1	22,088	0	11,243	33,385	119	6.69	25.06
28	Texas	86	4	17,256	0	12,492	29,838	316	11.27	8.72
13	Ohio	0	12,137	0	8,707	8,801	29,645	171	-4.73	-11.71
15	New Jersey	0	11,816	0	3,878	2,414	18,108	193	44.59	1.20
16	Virginia	51	1	10,136	0	6,499	16,687	196	8.24	4.14†
9	Colorado	41	0	11,437	0	4,787	16,265	131	11.43	12.53
39	New York	0	11,048	1	2,316	1,877	15,242	521	11.55	5.28
12	Maryland	3	6,795	0	5,795	2,210	14,803	157	58.83	85.64
34	Pennsylvania	1	4,961	0	5,232	3,973	14,167	387	7.16	15.48
17	Mass.	1	7,779	0	3,159	1,728	12,667	215	17.53	34.81
20	Indiana	0	2,362	0	4,504	5,235	12,101	230	-12.75	-15.77
19	Wisconsin	1	5,899	0	2,661	2,620	11,181	229	11.17	105.16
22	Tennessee	4	1	4,730	0	6,153	10,888	250	3.92	-9.09††
18	Minnesota	31	0	5,450	0	5,139	10,620	217	16.27	100.26
23	Washington	0	0	6,142	0	4,233	10,375	264	-7.32	33.00
11	Oregon	108	2	7,033	0	3,175	10,318	156	7.09	76.59
36	North Carolina	1,028	4	4,158	0	4,628	9,818	420	28.86	-5.99
6	Utah	3,515	0	3,564	0	2,474	9,553	97	13.24	96.28
30	Missouri	24	0	4,470	0	3,398	7,892	335	8.26	-11.17†
24	South Carolina	1	3,695	1	1,153	2,696	7,546	268	10.99	59.74
5	Idaho	2,916	0	3,021	0	594	6,531	97	28.06	153.53*
32	Alabama	8	0	3,808	0	2,135	5,951	359	-7.07	173.86*
21	Arkansas	339	0	3,002	0	1,837	5,178	249	11.59	39.61*
25	Connecticut	0	3,422	0	408	1,283	5,113	281	68.86	10.00
29	Oklahoma	744	843	396	1,980	1,069	5,032	323	64.66*	22.02*
37	Louisiana	0	762	0	2,092	1,132	3,986	466	21.30*	98.70*
31	Kansas	0	538	0	1,129	1,735	3,402	358	39.71	47.08
41	Kentucky	1	1,050	0	1,126	1,102	3,279	581	15.30	12.45
14	Hawaii	449	0	1,499	0	795	2,743	185	29.02	141.46
40	Mississippi	4	1	841	0	1,374	2,220	565	50.51*	241.01*
35	New Mexico	0	890	0	837	456	2,183	395	9.20	84.69*
43	Iowa	1	0	658	0	1,292	1,951	681	17.81	31.91*
27	New Hampshire	14	0	1,372	0	558	1,944	306	-5.08	-2.21
26	Rhode Island	1	0	871	0	682	1,554	290	-6.33	-2.75
	District of Columbia	405	0	619	0	159	1,183	240	19.37	-11.05
42	Maine	0	234	0	577	242	1,053	662	27.02	33.12
38	Delaware	0	4	0	483	291	778	500	-8.79	-11.69
33	Alaska	9	0	534	0	221	764	369	29.93	36.43
45	Nebraska	241	247	12	6	229	735	1,062	75.84*	-29.67
48	West Virginia	6	0	287	0	277	570	1,549	67.16*	356.00*
44	South Dakota	0	110	0	105	149	364	981	127.50	205.88
47	Montana	1	0	19	0	273	293	1,486	94.04	-6.69
46	Wyoming	1	0	86	0	130	217	1,117	-4.82	-14.90
49	North Dakota	0	3	0	59	52	114	2,724	29.55	-20.28
50	Vermont	2	1	7	0	52	62	5,023	342.86	169.57

*Actual increase may not be as high due to data collection changes or improvements
**Collection of records classified as NOD began in August 2009 because of change in state law
† Collection of some records previously classified as NOD in this state was discontinued starting in January 2009
†† Collection of some records previously classified as NOD in this state was discontinued starting in September 2008