June Foreclosure Filings Fall Slightly From May

Irvine, CA, July 10, 2008--Foreclosure filings last month grew by more than 50 percent compared with June 2007, according RealtyTrac Inc.

Nationwide, 252,363 homes received at least one foreclosure-related notice in June, up 53 percent from the same month last year, but down 3 percent from May.

Foreclosure filings increased over last year in all but 11 states. Nevada, California, Arizona, Florida and Michigan still have the highest foreclosure rates.

More than 71,000 properties were repossessed by lenders nationwide in June, RealtyTrac said.

Efforts in some states to give borrowers more time before losing their homes appear to be working.

For example, in Maryland, where a new law has increased the time to finalize a foreclosure from 15 to 150 days, foreclosure filings dropped by almost 18 percent from last year's levels.

Economists project 2.5 million homes nationwide will enter the foreclosure process this year, up from about 1.5 million in 2007.

Metropolitan areas in California and Florida accounted for nine of the top 10 areas with the highest rate of foreclosure for the third-straight month.

In today's market, about 50 to 60 percent of borrowers nationally who receive foreclosure filings are now likely to lose their homes, said Rick Sharga, RealtyTrac's vice president of marketing, compared with a typical rate of about 40 percent.