Foreclosure filings in the Baton Rouge area were up more than 246% in April compared to the same time last year, when the federal government had a foreclosure moratorium in place.
However, filings were down a little more than 8% from the prior month, which included declines in Ascension, East Baton Rouge and Livingston parishes, the Capital Region’s three biggest housing markets. That suggests the post-moratorium increase might be starting to level off.
“A lot of these houses are getting sold before they go through the foreclosure process,” says Kenny Hodges, president and CEO of Assurance Financial in Baton Rouge. “I think we’re going to see that over the next 12 months at least, because there is such strong housing demand right now and low inventory.”
Nationwide, default notices, scheduled auctions or bank repossessions were down 8% from March to April but up 160% from a year ago, according to ATTOM, a curator of real estate data. Lenders started the foreclosure process on 22,286 properties in April, down slightly from 22,360 in March but up 251% from a year ago. Repossessions were down 36% from March but up 82% from last year.
“The extreme difference between foreclosure starts and foreclosure completions in April might be the beginning of a trend,” says Rick Sharga, executive vice president of market intelligence for ATTOM. “Record levels of homeowner equity should provide financially distressed homeowners the opportunity to sell their homes prior to a foreclosure auction, meaning we should continue to see fewer foreclosure completions.”
