RealtyTrac Inc has recently released some facts regarding foreclosures in Austin. While these figures may seem a bit disheartening at first, a closer look reveals that Austin is still faring far better than most markets around the country and there are signs that things are stabilizing within the Austin market.
According to the figures recently released by RealtyTrac, which is a private marketer of foreclosure properties, one in every 593 properties in the Austin area are either in foreclosure or are in danger of being foreclosed upon in April. These figures represent a 45% increase when compared to the figures from one year ago.
In all, RealtyTrac found that 1,109 homes were either foreclosed upon, in default or scheduled for Austin in Apri. This is a 1.6% decrease when compared to March, at which time 1,127 homes were foreclosed upon. In addition, Austin still comes in at number 115 out of 203 areas with the highest foreclosure rates that RealtyTrac keeps track of.
Overall, the state of Texas is doing better than other states when it comes to avoiding foreclosures. According to reports from April, 1 in 731 homes in the state received a foreclosure filing. On the national level, on the other hand, 1 in 387 homes have received a filing. In all, 333,837 foreclosure filings were reported throughout the country in April. While these are still large figures, this does represent a 9% decrease when compared to March of this year and a 2% decrease when compared to April of 2009.
According to James J. Saccacio, who is the CEO of RealtyTrac, these figures offer hope that foreclosure activity has started to plateau.
“April was the first month in the history of our report with an annual decrease in U.S. foreclosure activity,” said Saccacio. “Secondly, bank repossessions, or REOs, hit a record monthly high for the report even while default notices dropped substantially on a monthly and annual basis. We expect a similar pattern to continue for most of this year, with the overall numbers staying at a high level and ripples of activity hitting the various stages of the foreclosure process as lenders systematically work through the backlog of distressed properties.”
As things even out throughout the country, Austin residents can take confort in knowing that things are looking pretty stable within the area’s housing market. In fact, Austin still remains among the top markets expected to bounce back quickly from the recession.