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DC area not as hurt by foreclosures { February 2008 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.examiner.com/a-1278087~Foreclosures_drop_in_D_C__and_Northern_Virginia.htmlhttp://www.examiner.com/a-1278087~Foreclosures_drop_in_D_C__and_Northern_Virginia.html
Foreclosures drop in D.C. and Northern Virginia
Whitney Blake, The Examiner
2008-03-14 08:00:00.0
Current rank: # 4 of 8,611
WASHINGTON -
Though tough economic data seems to have been piling up lately, Thursday brought a hint of good news as home foreclosures dropped in the majority of the metro area and across the country, from January to February.
The one-month decrease comes at the start of the spring season, when real estate activity tends to pick up.
“We’ve got the best three months ahead of us,” said Donna Evers, a real estate broker and owner or Washington-based Evers and Co., referring to the mid-March to mid-June period.
The number of properties with foreclosure filings fell 32.5 percent in the District of Columbia in February, with 340 foreclosure filings on properties, down from 504 the month before, according to Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac, a Web-based foreclosure listing company, which releases monthly foreclosure data.
In Northern Virginia, filings slid 18.7 percent, with only one county, Loudoun, seeing a slight increase of 1.3 percent, from 388 properties with foreclosure filings to 393 properties. Prince William County, which has been hit hard by the mortgage crisis, saw a decrease in filings of 23.7 percent, from 1,504 properties to 1,147 properties.
Fairfax County’s number of foreclosures dipped 19.2 percent, from 1,330 properties to 1,074 properties, and Arlington County dropped 12.8 percent from 94 properties with foreclosure filings to 82 properties.
Overall, in the state of Virginia, foreclosures dropped 18.7 percent over the past month as well, from 5,152 properties with filings to 4,187 properties.
Across the entire country, the number of properties with foreclosures dipped 4.0 percent from Janury to February.
In the metro area, the mild winter has helped a lot, said Evers. “People were in the mood right after Christmas” to look for houses.
One economist sees a relatively positive outlook for the next few months.
“I suspect that in March or April, [the foreclosure rate] is going to decrease, due to seasonalities” said Paul Carrillo, assistant professor of economics at George Washington University.
“This might help prices stay afloat. If prices don’t fall, the number of foreclosures shouldn’t increase that much,” he added.
While the areas closest to the Beltway has been relatively healthy, with steady prices over the past year, parts of Montgomery County and all of Prince William County, plus other areas in Northern Virginia outside the Beltway, have faced significant challenges, said Evers and Carrillo.
Montgomery County and Prince William County saw a jump in foreclosures similar to that across the entire state of Maryland, which had a 9.1 percent jump in foreclosure filings, from 3,681 properties in January to 4,016 in February. Montgomery County foreclosures inched up 6.7 percent, from 506 properties to 540 properties. In Prince George’s County there was a 24.9 percent spike from 1,060 properties to 1,324 properties.
wblake@dcexaminer.com
Examiner
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