It’s time once again to expand on our preview of foreclosure activity with a more detailed look at September’s stats in King, Snohomish, and Pierce counties. First up, the Notice of Trustee Sale summary:
October 2011
King: 376 NTS, down 71% YOY
Snohomish: 159 NTS, down 78% YOY
Pierce: 239 NTS, down 70% YOY
Another massive drop for Seattle-area foreclosures. As I’ve said before, I think we might be past the peak on foreclosures, but these are falling too fast for me to believe that it isn’t related to some sort of unusual external influence like the state legislation passed earlier this year.
This theory is boosted by headlines like what the Times and P-I are running today: Seattle-area foreclosure activity in October bucks national trend and Foreclosures fall in Seattle area, rise nationwide. Just like last time there was a big discrepancy between the local and national data, there’s probably a specific local reason behind it.
Here’s your interactive Tableau dashboard updated with the latest foreclosure data:
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 2,201 households, Snohomish County had 1 NTS per 1,719 households, and Pierce had 1 NTS for every 1,343 households (higher is better).
According to foreclosure tracking company RealtyTrac, Washington’s statewide foreclosure rate for October of one foreclosure for every 1,049 housing units was 28th hightest among the 50 states and the District of Columbia. 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.
Here’s a heat map of Washington counties from RealtyTrac:
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:
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.