Foreclosure filings in Colorado fall 27 percent in 2011

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New foreclosure notices in Colorado fell to 23,338 filings during 2011’s first nine months, falling 27 percent from the 32,009 filings reported during the same period of 2010. According to a report released Tuesday by the Colorado Division of Housing, foreclosure sales at auction, the event that completes the foreclosure process, were also down during the first nine months of the year. Auction sales fell 18 percent from 2010’s nine-month total of 19,163 to a total of 15,560 sales reported during the same period of this year.

Foreclosure filing totals for the third quarter of this year were down 24.6 percent, falling to 8,026 this year from 2010’s third-quarter total of 10,640. Foreclosure sales at auction fell 29.8 percent to 4,627 from 2010’s third-quarter total of 6,590.

From the second quarter to the third quarter of this year, foreclosure filings rose 11 percent, while foreclosure auction sales fell 13.2 percent.

Foreclosure filings fell to an 11-quarter low during the second quarter of this year, and although filings rose during the third quarter, they remain near 3-year lows. During the third quarter of this year, foreclosure filings totals were 35 percent below the peak in foreclosure filings reached during 2009. The year-over-year decline in foreclosure filings and in auction sales reflects an ongoing trend that began in late 2010.

“In the wake of the controversies about the processing of foreclosures that surfaced in late 2010, foreclosure totals fell off significantly. The surprising thing is that the numbers didn’t bounce back this year,” said Ryan McMaken, a spokesman with the Colorado Division of Housing. “We’re now likely to end this year with far fewer foreclosure filings than occurred last year, but there still may be a sizable inventory in pending foreclosures that have yet to be processed.”

While several regions of Colorado saw improvement during the third quarter, some areas continued to experience continued growth in foreclosures.

All twelve of the state’s metropolitan counties reported drops in both foreclosure filings and auction sales during the third quarter of 2011. From the third quarter of 2010 to the same period this year, Adams County filings fell 32 percent and Denver County filings fell 31 percent. Foreclosure filings in Mesa County fell 33 percent during the same period. Most of the state’s 64 counties reported year-over-year declines in foreclosure filings.

Those counties that did experience increases were generally found on the Western Slope and outside the Front Range. From the third quarter of 2010 to the same period this year, filings in Summit County rose 19 percent, and they rose 20 percent in Chafee County. Filings rose 19 percent in San Miguel County.

“The few pockets of growth we found in foreclosures tended to be in the mountains, and we’re also finding more mountain counties among the counties with the highest foreclosure rates,” McMaken said. “The ten counties with the highest foreclosure rates now include Summit, Grand, Gunnison, and Park counties. The demand for home buying dropped off much later in the mountains than along the Front Range, and it looks like they’re still adjusting to the shift in those markets.”