Foreclosures Rising In Metro Areas

Tags: Foreclosures, Real Estate, virginia
Posted in Foreclosures, May 7th, 2008 |

During the first quarter foreclosure numbers showed signs of rising in the metro areas. This is in comparison to the figures of the first quarter during the previous year of 2007. Most areas saw double digit and even triple digit rises. There were however few exceptions – Loudoun County, Manassas, Fairfax and Falls Church. James J. Saccacio of RealtyTrac comments that there is no denying that ‘most regions of the country are seeing more foreclosures.’ There are 100 metropolitan areas in US. Washington area stood 22nd. Maryland came 12th, while Virginia ranked 15th.

In Maryland Prince George’s County had the most concentrations of foreclosures with one out of 95 houses slipping into its net. During the first quarter there were 3,334 postings that calculates to a jump of 34.06% over the previous quarter – the last three months of 2007.

The 7th position went to Montgomery County with 1,642 foreclosure listings in the first quarter of this year. This showed a rise of 42.91%. One out of 219 houses were in foreclosures.

In Virginia the top rankers were
Prince William County, Manassas and Loudoun County. In Prince William one out of 35 houses were in foreclosure – an increase of 91.36% with 3,764 foreclosure listings. Manassas recorded 151 foreclosures during the first three months and showed a decrease of 50.81% from the last quarter of the previous year. Here the ratio of foreclosure was one out of every 85 houses. In Loudoun County the increase was a modest 0.73% from the last quarter with 1,110 foreclosure postings. The proportion was one out of 89 houses were stained with foreclosure.

Fairfax ranked 8th with an increase of 101.96%. The number of foreclosure noting was 3,189 and the ratio was one out of every 123 houses being in the dreaded zone.

Arlington County and Alexandria saw three fold increases but the proportion was low with one out of 399 and 351houses being in foreclosure respectively. There were only 20 postings in Fairfax City, which showed a decrease of 64.29%, with 56 postings. Falls Church had merely three foreclosure listings after having notched 11 numbers in the last quarter.

Economist Paul Carrilo of George Washington University opines that foreclosures are the cause behind the fall in real estate markets. If incentives can be increased to rope in more buyers to avail of cheap bargains then the markets will again find its bearings.