RealtyTrac: April U.S. Foreclosure Activity Down 20%- Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - RealtyTrac, an online marketplace for foreclosure properties, reported Thursday that April foreclosure activity in the U.S. declined 20 percent year-over-year.

In its U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, the agency noted that foreclosure filings - default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions - were reported on 115,830 U.S. properties in April, a 1 percent decrease from the previous month and down 20 percent from April 2013. The report also shows one in every 1,137 U.S. housing units with a foreclosure filing during the month.

Despite the decrease in overall foreclosure activity, bank repossessions in April increased 4 percent from the previous month, although they were still down 14 percent from a year ago. There were a total of 30,056 bank repossessions nationwide in April.

Bank repossessions increased from the previous month in 26 states and were up from a year ago in 16 states, including New York (142 percent increase), Oregon (91 percent increase), New Jersey (58 percent increase), Illinois (55 percent increase), Indiana (52 percent increase), Maryland (45 percent increase), Connecticut (44 percent increase), California (27 percent increase), and Nevada (15 percent increase).

The report stated that a total of 49,239 U.S. properties were scheduled for a future foreclosure auction in April, down 3 percent from the previous month and down 21 percent from a year ago -- the 41st consecutive month where scheduled foreclosure auctions decreased annually.