Long Beach Homes Prices Plateau

One in every 387 homes in the United States was in some stage of foreclosure last month, RealtyTrac reported Thursday showing that foreclosure filings – including default notices, scheduled auctions, and bank repossessions – were issued on 333,837 properties in April. While still elevated, that figure represents a 9 percent drop from the previous month and a 2 percent decline compared to April 2009.
According to RealtyTrac’s CEO James J. Saccacio, two significant milestones can be found in the April numbers, which he says indicate that foreclosure activity “has begun to plateau.”

The first, April 2010 is the only month in the history of RealtyTrac’s report with an annual decrease in U.S. foreclosure activity. Secondly, bank repossessions, or REOs, hit a record monthly high for the report even while default notices dropped substantially on both a monthly and annual basis. During April, a total of 103,762 properties received default notices, a decrease of 12 percent from the previous month and down 27 percent from April 2009 – when default activity peaked at more than 142,000 notices filed.
New REOs hit a record monthly high for the report in April, with a total of 92,432 properties repossessed by lenders during the month – an increase of 1 percent from the previous month and an increase of 45 percent from April 2009. April’s bank repossessions were less than 1 percent above their previous peak of 92,182 in December 2009.
“We expect a similar pattern to continue for most of this year, with the overall numbers staying at a high level and ripples of activity hitting the various stages of the foreclosure process as lenders systematically work through the backlog of distressed properties,” Saccacio said.
Arizona foreclosure activity decreased nearly 15 percent from the previous month, but the state’s foreclosure rate moved from third highest in March to second highest in April thanks to an even bigger decrease in California.
California posted the nation’s fourth highest foreclosure rate, with one in every 192 homes receiving a filing. It had the most filings of any other state – 69,725 during the month-span – although that total was down 25 percent from the previous month and down nearly 28 percent from April 2009.
RealtyTrac said metros in the sand states of Nevada, Florida, California, and Arizona continued to account for all top 10 foreclosure rates among large metropolitan areas, but foreclosure activity decreased on a year-over-year basis in nine of those top 10 metros. Reno-Sparks, Nevada was the only exception.
As per the U.S. Foreclosure Market Report released by California-based RealtyTrac, a total of 333,837 properties in the nation received auction notice, meaning that one out of every 387 houses received a foreclosure filing. This is 9 percent less than the homes foreclosed last month, and 2 percent less than April 2009.
There is some even more positive news coming locally in the Greater Long Beach, CA region is one of the strongest and most active markets in the country. The Median Price of homes sold in April of 2010 is 30% higher than the Median Price of homes sold in April 2009 and the number of sales is up 42% April 2010 vs. April 2009! When combined with the Condo market, prices are up 17% and Sales are up 44%. Obviously, as these numbers reflect, the local market has stabilized and is improving rapidly. The median price for single family in real numbers for the first quarter of 2010 were up $379,500, compared to all of last year’s $275,000 again according to statistics at Clarus Marketmetrics, which is substantiated by the number of new listings and sales numbers we’ve seen at Coldwell Banker Coastal Alliance, Long Beach’s top brokerage. Which is all good news indicating we are moving away from the bottom. @chrisgoodmanson