I saw an alarming statistic the other day. Foreclosures are up nationwide. The headline is a bit misleading, though – it’s the largest jump in five years. They’ve only been tracking it for five years, so it’s not as dire as the headline makes it sound! But you cannot argue with the math taken from the linked-to article above-
…the number of U.S. homes taken over by banks jumped 35 percent in the first quarter from a year ago. In addition, households facing foreclosure grew 16 percent in the same period and 7 percent from the last three months of 2009.
Ouch.
What about Tri-Cities Foreclosures?
In the last quarter of 2009, we had 124 Notice of Trustee Sales issued. The first quarter of this year we had 176. That’s a 40% increase. Sounds awful, doesn’t it?
Compare it, however, to the first quarter of 2009, when we saw 259 Notice of Trustee Sales issued in the Tri-Cities. The first quarter of 2010 saw a 33% DECREASE compared to the year before. The last quarter of 2009 saw a 39% DECREASE from the same period in 2008 (201 Trustee Sales). So, while it looks like we’re following the nation in this wave of foreclosures, we’re actually gaining some ground and doing better than we had in years past. Good to know!
Data used in this post is courtesy of the Benton Franklin Title Market Report, distributed monthly.
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