Another week, another new set of abysmal foreclosure stats, this time from RealtyTrac via a report in the Post. RealtyTrac’s numbers for the first quarter of ’08 show that one in every 241 Brooklyn homeowners is now in the foreclosure process, more than double last year’s rate. New York-area foreclosures are up 34 percent. RealtyTrac’s data takes into account that the city’s foreclosure process is very long, and a company rep says we probably haven’t reached the bottom yet. “We are still waiting for the other shoe to drop,” says RealtyTrac spokesman Daren Blomquist. Rep. Nydia Velazquez says more of her constituents are calling her up as rates rise on their ARMs. “They call because they don’t know what to do,” she says, also noting that she expects the situation to get worse. RealtyTrac’s report on New York foreclosures differs substantially from Property Shark’s first quarter report, which said there had been a 66 percent rise in the number of new foreclosures scheduled in New York City in the first quarter of this year. The difference in stats may be rooted in the fact that Property Shark only tracks new foreclosures. Either way, the news ain’t good.
Metro Foreclosure Rate Soars 34% [NY Post]
Graphic from the Post.