Zero Hedge

After hitting a record high in April, RealtyTrac has announced that the pace of foreclosures has slowed down, and in May dropped by 6%. Nonetheless, “May foreclosure activity was the third highest month on record, and marked the third straight month where the total number of properties with foreclosure filings exceeded 300,000 — a first in the history of our report,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “While defaults and scheduled foreclosure auctions were both down from the previous month, bank repossessions, or REOs, were up 2 percent thanks largely to substantial increases in several states, including Michigan, Arizona, Washington, Nevada, Oregon and New York. We expect REO activity to spike in the coming months as foreclosure delays and moratoria implemented by various state laws come to an end.” Ah yes, the dreaded moratorium: interesting how long the Wells Fargo lobby will keep postponing the inevitable collapse.

May foreclosure rates presented below:

Other points of interest from the RealtyTrac report:

Nevada, California, Florida post top state foreclosure rates

Nevada continued to document the nation’s highest foreclosure rate, with one in every 64 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing during the month — more than six times the national average.

With one in every 144 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing during the month, California posted the nation’s second highest state foreclosure rate despite a 4 percent decrease in foreclosure activity from the previous month.

Florida posted the third highest state foreclosure rate in May, with one in every 148 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing during the month

Arizona posted the fourth highest state foreclosure rate in May, with one in every 158 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing, and Utah posted the fifth highest state foreclosure rate, with one in every 316 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing.

Other states with foreclosure rates ranking among the nation’s 10 highest were Michigan, Georgia, Colorado, Idaho and Ohio.

Top 10 states account for nearly 77 percent of total U.S. foreclosure activity

California reported 92,249 properties with foreclosure filings in May, the highest total of any state and up nearly 23 percent from May 2008. Bank repossessions in California were down 1 percent from the previous month and defaults were down 18 percent, but scheduled auctions were up 18 percent.

Default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions in Florida were all down from the previous month, but the state still posted the nation’s second highest number of properties with foreclosure filings: 58,931, up 50 percent from May 2008.

Nevada documented 17,157 properties with foreclosure filings in May, the third highest total of any state and up nearly 83 percent from May 2008. A 23 percent increase in bank repossessions helped push Nevada foreclosure activity up 5 percent from the previous month.

Other states with totals among the 10 highest in the country were Arizona (16,865), Michigan (13,891), Ohio (11,360), Illinois (10,942), Georgia (10,516), Texas (9,813) and Virginia (5,385). The top 10 states accounted for nearly 77 percent of total properties with foreclosure filings nationwide.