Foreclosure filings in the Washington area fell in April despite a 32 percent increase nationwide, according to data released Wednesday.
The number of foreclosure filings in the Washington area dropped by more than 30 percent from April 2008, according to the online foreclosure-tracking Web site RealtyTrac. The number of filings in the region dropped 12 percent in the first three months of the year, bucking a nationwide trend that saw a 24 percent increase from the first quarter in 2008.
“It seems clear to us out in the market that we’ve gone through the worst of it” in outer Montgomery and Fairfax counties, said Donna Evers, president of local firm Evers & Co. Real Estate.
Evers cited the relative strength of the Washington-area economy compared with the rest of country, as well as a glut of first-time homebuyers entering a local market with rock-bottom prices, as two reasons for the area’s drop in foreclosures.
Though filings in Prince William have fallen from a year ago, RealtyTrac spokesman Daren Blomquist pointed out that the county has had one of the highest foreclosure rates among counties in the nation. Indeed, one in every 128 houses in the county had a filing in April — well above the nationwide average of one in every 374.
Sales have significantly increased in the county, which could be taking foreclosures off the market, Blomquist said. He added that the pattern of rapidly increasing sales and decreasing foreclosures can be seen in other areas of the country that — like in Northern Virginia — have been hit particularly hard by the housing market. For example, Nevada, which had the highest state foreclosure rate in April, actually saw a 44 percent drop in bank repossessions from March.
He said the trend signified “at least the beginning signs that the market could be recovering, just because it fell so far and so fast” in Prince William.
Still, Virginia ranked 14th nationwide for the number of foreclosures, with one filing for every 524 houses, and Maryland ranked 17th with one in every 642 houses being foreclosed on.
But Evers said that Fairfax, Arlington and Alexandria have a three-month supply of houses on the market, down from a high of about 10 months. She said that was an indication that the area has moved beyond the worst.
“You can’t have low product on the market and a [lot] of foreclosures — it doesn’t work like that,” she said.
