One in every 387 homes in the United States was in some stage of foreclosure last month, RealtyTrac reported Thursday.  The company’s data shows that foreclosure filings – including default notices, scheduled auctions, and bank repossessions – were issued on 333,837 properties in April. While still elevated, that figure represents a 9 percent drop from the previous month and a 2 percent decline compared to April 2009.

According to RealtyTrac’s CEO James J. Saccacio, two significant milestones can be found in the April numbers, which he says indicate that foreclosure activity “has begun to plateau.”

The first, April 2010 is the only month in the history of RealtyTrac’s report, dating back to January 2005, with an annual decrease in U.S. foreclosure activity. Secondly, bank repossessions, or REOs, hit a record monthly high for the report even while default notices dropped substantially on both a monthly and annual basis.

During April, a total of 103,762 properties received default notices, a decrease of 12 percent from the previous month and down 27 percent from April 2009 – when default activity peaked at more than 142,000 notices filed.

New REOs hit a record monthly high for the report in April, with a total of 92,432 properties repossessed by lenders during the month – an increase of 1 percent from

the previous month and an increase of 45 percent from April 2009. April’s bank repossessions were less than 1 percent above their previous peak of 92,182 in December 2009.

“We expect a similar pattern to continue for most of this year, with the overall numbers staying at a high level and ripples of activity hitting the various stages of the foreclosure process as lenders systematically work through the backlog of distressed properties,” Saccacio said.

A total of 16,217 Nevada properties received a foreclosure filing in April, the fifth highest total among the states, but that represents one in every 69 homes in Nevada, giving it the highest state foreclosure rate for the 40th straight month. A 57 percent monthly increase in REO activity pushed the state’s overall foreclosure activity up 10 percent from the previous month.

Arizona foreclosure activity decreased nearly 15 percent from the previous month, but the state’s foreclosure rate moved from third highest in March to second highest in April thanks to an even bigger decrease in California.

Florida posted the nation’s third highest foreclosure rate, with 48,384 properties, or one in every 182, receiving a filing, despite an 18 percent decrease from the previous month and 25 percent decline from a year ago.

California posted the nation’s fourth highest foreclosure rate, with one in every 192 homes receiving a filing. It had the most filings of any other state – 69,725 during the month-span – although that total was down 25 percent from the previous month and down nearly 28 percent from April 2009.

Other states with foreclosure rates ranking among the top 10 in April were Utah, Idaho, Michigan, Illinois, Georgia, and Colorado.

RealtyTrac said metros in the sand states of Nevada, Florida, California, and Arizona continued to account for all top 10 foreclosure rates among large metropolitan areas, but foreclosure activity decreased on a year-over-year basis in nine of those top 10 metros. Reno-Sparks, Nevada was the only exception.

By: Carrie Bay      Read the Entire Article at DSNews.com