It’s been a painful, steady climb for much of the U.S, which has endured waves upon waves of foreclosure filings and falling home values for the past seven years. But Realty-Trac’s Vice-President, Daren Blomquist, says their latest numbers are encouraging.
“In the month of June nationally, we saw 127,000 properties with foreclosure filings, the lowest monthly total since December of 2006. That’s where we’re talking about levels really before the housing bubble burst, or right around when the housing bubble burst, before the worst of the housing crisis.”
Blomquist says most markets across the country have worked through the bad loans that triggered the housing crisis. He adds many states have processed their foreclosure inventory, or in some cases homes have either been refinanced or homeowners have done short sales.
Then there’s…Ohio. It’s one of roughly twenty so-called judicial states, where the courts are involved with processing foreclosures.
Blomquist says this takes longer to get through the backlog.
“The other thing with Ohio is it isn’t one of those states that’s booming in other ways either, especially in terms of real estate. So it’s a more difficult recovery, even aside from the foreclosure process there.”
A declining population base and lingering economic challenges means Ohio’s recovery will be slower. But so far this year, foreclosure rates for the Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor region are lower than at this time in 2012.