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Charleston market seeing fewer foreclosures |
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Monday, 28 July 2008 |
SCBIZ Daily Staff
MOUNT PLEASANT -- Second quarter foreclosures rose in the Charleston market but not at the rate of the other two major metro areas of the state or most markets throughout the country, according to data released Friday morning by a national tracking firm.
Forty-eight out of 50 states and 95 of the nation's 100 largest metro areas experienced year-over-year increases in foreclosure activity in the second quarter, according to RealtyTrac.com. That includes the Charleston market, which came in at 93 out of 100, with a foreclosure increase of 21.39% from the first quarter of the year.
Columbia at 40.68% and Greenville at 47.82% also fared better than most other major markets, ranking 77 and 88 respectively.
"Although much of the fallout from foreclosures is being driven by rampant activity in a few states, such as Nevada, California, Florida, Ohio, Arizona and Michigan, most areas of the country are seeing at least some increase in foreclosure activity," said James J. Saccacio, CEO of RealtyTrac.
Nationally, the Palmetto state comes in at 35 out of 50. Second quarter numbers indicate one foreclosure for every 621 households in South Carolina. Nevada, the state ranking No. 1 in foreclosures for the second quarter, is seeing one foreclosure for every 43 households, RealtyTrac reported.
The numbers used by RealtyTrac include notices of default and actual repossessions by banks, though the company noted that repossessions are outpacing notices, which could be an indication that the number of risky loans tied to foreclosures are dwindling.
"Bank repossessions, or REOs, accounted for 30 percent of total foreclosure activity in the second quarter, up from 24 percent of the total in the first quarter," Saccacio said. "This shift in the distribution of activity indicates that there is a progression toward purging the problem loans out of the system - at which point the housing market can regain some sense of normalcy.
Of course if another surge in defaults occurs, which could well happen later this year, it would refill the foreclosure pipeline and prolong the recovery."
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