RealtyTrac, an online marketplace for real estate data, Thursday said foreclosure filings were reported on 148,054 U.S. properties in May, down 28 percent from May 2012, but up 2 percent from the 75-month low in April. Foreclosure filings include default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions.
Releasing its U.S. Foreclosure Market Report for May, the market researcher said the report also shows one in every 885 U.S. housing units with a foreclosure filing during the month. The foreclosure problem continued to shift away from non-judicial states and toward judicial states.
The monthly increase in overall foreclosure activity was due mainly to an 11 percent sequential increase in bank repossessions or REOs, although REO activity fell 29 percent from a year ago.
REO activity increased from the previous month in 33 states. It rose 9 percent from the previous month in non-judicial states and was up 13 percent from the previous month in judicial states.
U.S. foreclosure starts increased 4 percent from the previous month but declined 33 percent from last year.
Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac, said, "Foreclosure activity continued to bounce back in some markets where it may have appeared the foreclosure problem had been knocked out by an aggressive combination of foreclosure prevention efforts over the past two years."
According to him, still, the emerging housing recovery has strengthened most local markets enough to quickly shake off a few more blows from the nagging foreclosures.
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