Foreclosures Decrease Nationwide … Except in the Southeast

Nationwide, foreclosures dropped for the second consecutive month in February.

However, the Southeast saw numbers soar more than 13 percent over January, as more home loans in this region went into default than anywhere else.

According to ForeclosureS.com, a California-based publisher of foreclosure property information, foreclosures dropped nationally in February to 106,074 filings, down 3.4 percent from January and down 6.5 percent from December.

“The foreclosure numbers finally are beginning to reflect the stabilization in housing markets that we’ve been talking about for the last few months,” said Alexis McGee, president of ForeclosureS.com.

With construction starts down and sales of existing homes up, McGee said, “Of course time will tell for sure whether we’ve seen the bottom or not. However, other economic indicators reflect a leveling off between housing supply and demand and reinforce the opinion that the worst really is behind us.”

However, the Southeast, which includes the Alabama housing market and 10 other states, saw an increase of filings for a total of 26,869, compared to 23,787 in January.

Florida had the lion’s share of filings in the region with a total of 14,560 for the month, an increase of 16 percent over January and nearly 100 percent over the same time last year, landing it in the No. 2 spot for the most filings in the country behind those with California mortgages.

SOURCE: Birmingham Business Journal