Foreclosure Activity Down in Most Metro Areas

Foreclosure Activity Down in Most Metro Areas.

The AP (7/29, Veiga) reports, "Most of the nation's largest metropolitan areas are seeing a sharp drop in foreclosure activity as banks take longer to move against" distressed homeowners; a CoreLogic report notes "Some 1.7 million potential foreclosures are being held up." For the first six months of 2011, "84% of metropolitan areas with a population of at least 200,000 saw their foreclosure rate drop versus the same period last year, foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac said Thursday," with the bulk of the slowdown happening "in states where courts play a role in the foreclosure process and now have to wade through a logjam of cases" such as California, Nevada, and Arizona. Some lenders are flexible because they believe the owners may eventually qualify for a modification, while the slow housing market provides "little incentive for lenders to evict homeowners and chance having the property sit empty and unsold for months."