A sure-fire sign of an improving real estate market is the fall of foreclosure activity, and luckily those trends are down throughout the nation for the eighth consecutive month, according to RealtyTrac‘s newly released data.
Monitoring foreclosure activity throughout the nation down to a city level, the data showed that foreclosure activity is below 2006 average monthly levels.
However, not all states are measuring equally. RealtyTrac reported 18 states and the District of Columbia posted a year-over-year increase in foreclosures. The highest foreclosure rates were seen in Delaware, Florida, Nevada, Maryland and New Jersey.
A few metro areas witnessed gains in foreclosure activity as well, including Rockford, Illinois; Trenton, New Jersey; Tuscon, Arizona and St. Petersburg, Florida.
On an annual basis, the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metro area saw a 50.09 percent decrease in foreclosure activity. In May 2016 there were 2,672 real estate owned properties and homes in the process of going under foreclosure — a 6.12 percent dip over April 2016.
The metro area is divided into Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties. All three posted decreases on an annual basis, but Broward was the only county that also saw a decrease on a monthly basis. Broward County had a monthly dip in foreclosures in May 2016 of 24.79 percent.
Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties saw a 1.13 percent and 19.16 percent increases on a monthly basis in May.
Over May 2015, Broward County saw a decrease of 62.61 percent in foreclosure activity. That was the largest fall of the three counties, but Miami-Dade County was still strong with a 45.15 percent fall. Palm Beach County had the smallest annual dip of 28.94 percent in May.
