story by Kim Souza
ksouza@thecitywire.com
Foreclosure filings across the state and region bounced higher in May as lenders continue to release the backlog of properties held up from litigation that was resolved over a year ago.
Homes that have sat vacant for two years are coming back onto the market.
Benton County ranked No. 1 in the state with 164 new filings last month, up nearly 122% from the prior year. More than 19% of the new foreclosure filings recorded in Arkansas last month were in Benton County, according to RealtyTrac.com.
While Washington County also showed an increase in active foreclosures, the 62 new filings in May were up nearly 35% from a year ago. Roughly one in every four filings last month across the state was in Northwest Arkansas.
Real estate experts said given the region’s larger population and higher number of sales, it is not unusual to see more concentration of delinquent loans than seen in other less active markets.
Sebastian County posted 26 new foreclosure filings in May, up 37% from the same month last year. The majority of the filings were foreclosure starts, properties recently in default or scheduled for trustee sale in the next 60 days.
Crawford County bucked the trend with 9 filings last month, which was a 10% decline from the year-ago period.
Arkansas was one of eight states to post double-digit gains in foreclosure activity during May. There were 848 filings in Arkansas in May, up 109% from the prior year.
Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac, said Arkansas is one of four states to post triple digit gains in foreclosures over a year ago, behind Maryland, Connecticut and Hawaii.
“Still, the emerging housing recovery has strengthened most local markets enough to quickly shake off a few more blows from these nagging foreclosures,” he said.
Jim Long, agent with Crye-Leike Realty in Bentonville, said the Multiple Listing Service shows 306 bank-owned properties at this time. The bank-owned inventory has risen from 249 properties last month and 222 properties in March. This inventory includes all four counties in this report.
“I am seeing more higher priced homes come back on the market. One down the street from me recently listed for $260,000, which is much higher that what we saw most of last year,” Long said.
Long said the lower priced properties continue to be snapped up quickly by investors and even the higher priced bank-owned properties are selling well given the lower overall inventory levels in most price categories.
Across the nation, RealtyTrac reported 148,054 properties were in the midst of foreclosure, an increase of 2% from the 75-month low in April but still down 28% from May 2012.
The report also shows one in every 885 U.S. housing units with a foreclosure filing during the month.