While foreclosure filings and the foreclosure rate deteriorated from July, conditions have improved from a year ago. One out of every five U.S. foreclosures was filed on a California property.
Foreclosures — including default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — were filed on 338,836 properties last month, RealtyTrac reported Thursday.
Filings deteriorated from 325,229 foreclosures during July.
But the level of foreclosures improved from 358,471 in August 2009.
Year-to-date Aug. 31, 2, 318,699 U.S. foreclosures have been filed.
California was responsible for 20 percent of all U.S. foreclosures last month. Golden State filings rose to 69,143 from July’s 66,910 filings.
Florida’s 56,877 filings followed, then Michigan’s 17,764, Illinois’ 16,808 and Arizona’s 16,510.
On the low end, just 17 Vermont properties faced foreclosure last month — the fewest of any state.
The level of foreclosure filings hurt the foreclosure rate, which was one filing for each 381 housing units versus one-in-397 in July. But the foreclosure rate improved from one-in-357 during August 2009.
The worst foreclosure rate was in Nevada: one-in-84. Still, that was better than July’s one-in-82. Florida’s one-in-155 rate was second-worst, then one-in165 in Arizona.
Only one foreclosure was filed for each 18,389 Vermont properties — the best rate of any state.
Moving on to real-estate-owned filings, U.S. volume was 95,364 last month, more than 92,858 a month earlier and 76,143 last year.
So far this year, 717,900 homes have completed foreclosure.
REO filings were highest in California, where 15,218 homes were repossessed in August. The count was 13,871 in July.
No. 2 was Florida with 12,329 REOs, and Michigan was third with 5,654 REO filings.
Vermont’s 16 completed foreclosures were less than any other state.
