Foreclosure filings were up in Colorado during May, but
foreclosure auction sales fell to a five-year low. According to a report released Thursday by the Colorado Division of Housing, foreclosure filings in
Colorado’s
metropolitan counties were up 12.8 percent last month compared to May of last
year, rising from 2,002 to 2,259. Over
the same period, foreclosure auction sales were down 17.3 percent, falling to
the lowest May sales total recorded since 2008.
Among the counties surveyed, there were 965 foreclosure
auction sales during May of this year, compared to 1,167 sales during May of
last year.
For
the first five months of the year, from January through May, foreclosure filings
were up 1.7 percent in 2012 when compared to the same period last year.
Foreclosure auction sales, however, were down 27.1 percent over the same period.
Foreclosure filings are the initial filing that begins
the foreclosure process, and foreclosure auction sales totals are the total number of foreclosures that have been sold
at auction at the end of the foreclosure process.
“Foreclosure auction sales have now been down nineteen of
the last twenty months, comparing year over year, and for now, we can say that
fewer people have been losing their homes to foreclosure this year when compared
to other years since 2007,” said Ryan McMaken, a spokesman with the Colorado
Division of Housing. “On the other hand, filings continue to rise, and since
some of those filings will turn into re-possessed homes in the future, we can
see that foreclosures haven’t gone away yet.”
Comparing the first five months of this year with the
same period last year, the county with the largest decline in foreclosure
filings was Boulder County where filings decreased by 16.4 percent. Mesa County, on the other hand, reported a 21.1
percent increase in foreclosure filings over the same period.
Eleven of twelve counties surveyed showed decreases in
foreclosure auction sales during the first five months of this year when
compared to the same period last year.
The counties with the largest decreases in foreclosure auction sales,
year over year, were Denver
County and Douglas County, where auction sales decreased by
39.6 percent and 38.9 percent, respectively. Broomfield County reported an increase of 36.7 percent in auction
sales, while Pueblo’s auction sales fell only 3.3 percent
from 2011 to 2012, comparing the first five months of the year.
The
county with the highest rate of foreclosure sales during May was Mesa County with a rate of 852 households per
foreclosure sale. Pueblo County came in second with 1,002
households per foreclosure sale. The lowest rate was found in Boulder County where there were 6,289 households
per foreclosure sale.
The Division of
Housing’s monthly foreclosure report surveys foreclosure activity in the twelve
largest counties of Colorado. The report is a supplement to the
Division’s quarterly foreclosure report that includes all counties in Colorado.
