Foreclosures down, may be short lived

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - Foreclosure numbers across the county are down, compared with numbers from this same time last year.

Overall foreclosure numbers have dropped some 27% in the first quarter of 2011. They are also down 15% when comparing to the 4th quarter of 2010.

As a state Michigan ranks number 7 in the nation in foreclosure rates. Michigans foreclosure rate has dropped almost 18% over last year.

The report out by Realty Trac shows that Grand Rapids is ranked number 39 in the country in foreclosure rates.

Nearly 1 in every 137 homes in the Grand Rapids Wyoming area is in foreclosure. That number is down 6.5%.

Other Michigan cities ranked in the top 50 metropolitan areas for the highest foreclosures are Detroit at 20, Flint at 28, and Lansing at 38.

The states that have been hit the hardest by the mortgage crisis remain the same.

Nevada still ranks number 1 followed by Arizona at number 2, California at number 3, Utah at 4, and Idaho rounding out the top 5.

California accounts for 25% of foreclosures nation wide. In Las Vegas, the hardest hit city, 1 in every 31 homes are currently in foreclosure.

According to the survey by Realty Trac this trend may be short lived.

The report says that many banks are still dealing and recovering from the "robo-signing" mortgage meltdown of last year. Those banks are now filing and processing fewer foreclosures until they can get their processing in order.

The report suggests that as banks start to ramp up their processing and filing that foreclosure numbers would start to increase again.

Vermont is the state with the fewest homes in foreclosures only 1 in ever 9,820 homes there have been foreclosed upon.