Foreclosures in Kansas Decline in March

May 5th, 2009 | Tags: Foreclosure Market

Real estate developers in Kansas need to take note of the following — the number of houses in foreclosure has dropped by 27.9 per cent in March as against the previous month. The data has been released by RealtyTrac Inc. In future, however, foreclosures could go up as banks go on a repossession drive and issue default and auction notices.

Kansas Foreclosure Homes for Sale According to data available with RealtyTrac, an Irvine-based agency, specializing in reports on foreclosed properties as many as 844 Kansas homes were foreclosed in March. This was 18.9 percent more than the number of foreclosed homes in the North American city the previous year.

In the first quarter, as many as 2551 homes in Kansas were foreclosed — a number which is 35.5 per cent more when compared to the last quarter of 2008 and 82.7 per cent higher than the first quarter of the same year. The rate at which foreclosures happened in this city is amazing — in the first quarter the rate was one for 478 homes giving Kansas the dubious distinction of being high on the foreclosure chart — 32nd highest for the quarter.

If you wish to know the national figures, one in each 159 US houses had been foreclosed in the first half of 2009. This was revealed by RealtyTrac. According to the agency report, 803,489 homes were foreclosed in the quarter — which is again 9 per cent higher than the preceding quarter and 24 per cent higher than the figures of the first part of 2008.

The figures were the highest since RealtyTrac began compiling the data in January 2005. The foreclosures happened despite a decline in banks’ taking over the properties. In fact, bank’s repossessions came down by 13 per cent when compared to the fourth quarter. According to a media release issued by RealtyTrac, there were a record number of foreclosures in March. RealtyTrac CEO James Saccacio said that lenders did not execute foreclosures because of legislative delays. Also bank repossessions dropped which further contributed to the delays in foreclosures. Saccacio is also under the impression that bank repossessions would go up again when the freeze on property acquisitions is lifted.

There is a silver lining though. Saccacio has noted that demand has gone up in areas where first time buyers of houses are feeling more interested in homes that have been foreclosed by banks. They are eyeing these properties as bargains. However, it is unlikely that the increased demand for homes will compensate for the increasing number of foreclosures that are soon to happen.