Housing foreclosures at lowest level since 2007

Housing foreclosure filings fell for the third straight month in April to the lowest level since July 2007. According to RealtyTrac, total foreclosure activity for April, including default notices, scheduled auctions, and bank repossessions, were down 5 percent from March. In April, there were 51,415 repossessions, which is down 26 percent from a year ago, and about half the 102,000 monthly repossessions at the peak of September 2010.

The improvement, however, is attributed to the declines in only a handful of states, specifically the states hit hardest by the housing crisis and which did not require judicial review of foreclosures. Arizona and Nevada’s bank repossessions were down about 70 percent, while California’s was down more than 50 percent. States that require judicial review are only now catching up to foreclosure filings that were put on hold in the midst of the robo-signing scandal on 2010. Florida, Illinois, and New Jersey are among 26 states that do require judicial review and continue to see increases in foreclosure activity.