Recent Foreclosure Data Across The Country

The number of U.S. homes in some stage of the process has dropped to 322,920, with California accounting for 22% of them. Bank seizures have hit a record high for the second consecutive month. Foreclosure activity in the U.S. continued to level off in May 2010 with the number of homes caught up in some stage of the process falling 3% from April 2010, a real estate firm said. A total of 322,920 properties received some kind of foreclosure filing last month through either default notices, scheduled auctions, or bank repossessions. This is a 3% drop from April 2010, and is an increase of less than 1% from May 2009. About one in every 400 properties in the country received some sort of a filing last month. While the overall number of U.S. filings was down, and the number of households entering the first stage of the process fell 7% from April, the pace of homes exiting foreclosure and being seized by banks hit a record high in May 2010 for the second consecutive month. The increase in repossessions suggests that lenders are beginning to work through a backlog of properties that developed after many of the foreclosures were frozen last year by national and regional moratoriums. In addition, the Obama administration pressured lenders to work with defaulting homeowners. California continued to be a hotbed of foreclosure activity, accounting for 22% of the national tally with 72,030 properties receiving a filing in May 2010. That was an increase of 3% in May 2010 from April 2010, but it is a drop of 22% from May 2009. California had the fourth highest rate after Nevada, Arizona and Florida. Just 10 states accounted for 70% of the nation's foreclosure activity, with Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Utah and Maryland also in the top 10. Among metropolitan areas, Las Vegas had the highest foreclosure rate, followed by the Northern California cities of Merced and Modesto, though all three cities posted declines in their foreclosure rates last month.