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June 5, 2008

Update: R.I. holding steady on rate of foreclosure starts

Rhode Island's home foreclosure starts showed no increase during the first quarter of this year from the previous quarter, according to a report released today by the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Rhode Island is one of more than a dozen states where foreclosure starts remained essentially unchanged between the last three months of 2007 and the first three months of this year, said Jay Brinkman, the MBA’s vice president research and economics.

Twenty other states showed a decline during the same period, the MBA data shows. The last decline in the start rate of foreclosure proceedings in Rhode Island was at the end of 2005.

It’s still too early to say whether the leveling off or decline in foreclosure starts in some parts of the country represents an overall improvement in the mortgage market, said the MBA’s Brinkman.

“I’m hesitant to say that based on just one quarter,’’ he said. “I would need to see another quarter’s data.”

Nationwide, foreclosures during the first three months of this year were up from the end of last year, though the increase reflected the "overwhelming impact" of the hardest-hit states, he said, of California and Florida, followed by Arizona and Nevada.

Trend or no trend, people in Rhode Island are unlikely to feel any improvement for a while, since banks are still working their way through much of the inventory of foreclosed properties.

While foreclosure starts during the first-quarter leveled off in Rhode Island, the number of properties put up for foreclosure auction has continued to rise, according to data from Rhode Island Housing.

During January, February and March, about 1,060 houses were advertised for foreclosure auction in Rhode Island, up 282 percent compared with the first-quarter of last year, according to Rhode Island Housing.

See the press release on first-quarter foreclosures issued by the MBA.

Extra: Visit our continuing report on foreclosures in Rhode Island.

-- Journal staff writer Lynn Arditi

Posted by Andrea Panciera  at 3:51 PM | Permalink

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