Repo Houses, Jobless Rate Rose in St. George, Utah
The number of repo houses increased in St. George, Utah in April as the joblessness rate rose across the state, according to a study of foreclosure, home loan delinquency, home price and joblessness data in the area.
In April, nearly 2 percent of all mortgage loans in St. George are in foreclosure, a 0.76 increase in percentage compared to the foreclosure share in April. The foreclosure share is even higher than the nationwide foreclosure share of 1.8 percent in April this year.
The home loan delinquency rate also increased in St. George. More than 5 percent of home loans in the area were past due by three months or more in April, compared to the 2.88 percent share in April 2008.
From May last year to April this year, there were 3,457 foreclosure actions filed in St. George, which is equivalent to about 9.47 filings per day. This rate also included repo houses, resulting from filings that did not receive any intervention or that were not successfully saved by homeowners.
In the previous one-year period ended April 2008, there were only 1,522 foreclosure actions, representing around 4.17 filings per day and including filings that moved on to foreclosures and listing of repo houses.
Foreclosure filings refer to all the three main stages of the foreclosure process, which includes the filing of the notice of default, the notice of auction sale schedule and then the notice of completed foreclosure sale. Filings also include real estate owned figures, which refer to repo houses taken back by lenders.
In another foreclosure report released last week, Utah was fifth in a ranking of the U.S. states according to foreclosure rates in May. It had one house in every 316 housing units receiving a foreclosure action. All in all, it had 2,927 foreclosure filings, including 1,117 notices of default, 1,014 notices of trustee sale and 796 real estate owned repo houses.
Although Utah was in the top ten in terms of foreclosure rates, the state was not in the top ten in terms of total foreclosure filings. None of Utah’s cities were in the top ten list of cities with the biggest foreclosure rates.
Economists and housing analysts cite unemployment as the main factor for the continued rise in number of repo houses in recent months. In Utah, the unemployment rate increased from 4.6 percent in the first month of this year to 5.2 percent in April. The unemployment rate in St. George in April was 6.6 percent.
