By Dan Levy - Jun 16, 2011 12:00 AM ET (Bloomberg)
Eight-Year Low
Home prices slid 3.6 percent in the first quarter to the lowest level since 2003 in the S&P/Case-Shiller index of values in 20 U.S. cities. Confidence among builders in June was at the weakest in nine months, as executives expressed pessimism about the prospect of higher sales, the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo sentiment index showed yesterday.
The inventory of distressed homes nationwide stands at 1.8 million, which would take about three years to sell at the current pace, Daren Blomquist, RealtyTrac’s communications manager, said in a telephone interview.
Default notices were filed on 58,797 U.S. properties last month, the lowest in more than four years and a 39 percent decline from a year earlier, according to RealtyTrac.
Auctions were scheduled for 89,251 properties, down 33 percent from May 2010. Lenders seized 66,879 homes, a 29 percent decrease from a year earlier.
States where courts oversee foreclosures showed a 45 percent decrease in filings from a year earlier, while non- judicial states had a 25 percent decline and accounted for almost two-thirds of the national total, RealtyTrac said.