Time to expand on our preview of foreclosure activity with a more detailed look at April’s stats in King, Snohomish, and Pierce counties. First up, the Notice of Trustee Sale summary:
April 2009
King: 1,293 NTS, up 37.8% YOY
Snohomish: 640 NTS, up 32.5% YOY
Pierce: 737 NTS, up 13.0% YOY
Here’s your interactive Tableau dashboard updated with the latest foreclosure data:
A little bit of a back-off from March in all three counties, but the difference wasn’t much more than what you would expect to see given that April has one less day than March.
The percentage of households in the chart above is determined using OFM population estimates and household sizes from the 2000 Census. King County came in at 1 NTS per 628 households, Snohomish County had 1 NTS per 420 households, and Pierce had 1 NTS for every 429 households (higher is better).
According to foreclosure tracking company RealtyTrac, Washington’s statewide foreclosure rate for April of one foreclosure for every 640 housing units was 24th worst among the 50 states and the District of Columbia (up from 32nd last month). Note that RealtyTrac’s definition of “in foreclosure” is much broader than what we are using, and includes Notice of Default, Lis Pendens, Notice of Trustee Sale, and Real Estate Owned.
Hit the jump for a larger version of the chart that shows the percentage of households in each county receiving a foreclosure notice each month:
It will be quite interesting to see how these numbers pan out over the summer, especially as the number of buyers begins to dry up thanks to the expiration of the tax credit.
Note: The graphs above are derived from monthly Notice of Trustee Sale counts gathered at King, Snohomish, and Pierce County records. For a longer-term picture of King County foreclosures back to 1979, hit this chart and drag the date slider to its full range. For the full legal definition of what a Notice of Trustee Sale is and how it fits into the foreclosure process, check out RCW 61.24.040. The short version is that it is the notice sent to delinquent borrowers that their home will be repossessed in 90 days.