The real estate picture in the District improved last month with the number of foreclosures filed in September plummeting to only 20 percent of those filed in August, according to statistics released Thursday by data provider RealtyTrac Inc.
When ranked among the 50 states, D.C. placed 46th in number of foreclosures filed in September with a rate of 1 filing for every 5,669 households. The city ranked 20th in the nation in August, with 1 foreclosure for every 1,010 households.
Virginia’s September foreclosure rate dropped almost 50 percent from August’s, improving the state’s ranking from 17th to 31st.
Maryland experienced more modest improvements, with September filings dropping about 15 percent. The state moved from 14th to 15th in the national rankings.
All three jurisdictions fared better than average – nationally, foreclosure filings fell 8 percent in September. Even with the drop from August, however, that number of foreclosure filings in the nation was still up 99 percent as compared to September of last year.
“It’s too early to tell if September’s numbers represent a one-month lull or if they could signify that more buyers and investors are getting back in the market and snatching up discounted foreclosure properties, thereby providing a release valve for distressed homeowners and overwhelmed lenders,” RealtyTrac CEO James J. Saccacio said in a written analysis.
Though down from August, September’s numbers were still the second-highest recorded since RealtyTrac began issuing foreclosure reports in January 2005, Saccacio said.
In the D.C. metro region, foreclosure rates have consistently been lower than in other large cities. An analysis of numbers from the first half of 2007 by the George Mason Center for Regional Analysis showed that the D.C. area had the nation’s second-lowest foreclosure rate among the nation’s 15 largest metropolitan areas.
Even so, foreclosures in the D.C. area were up 6-fold from last year, with the bulk of the problem centering in the outer Virginia suburbs, according to the center.
