The RealtyTrac April 2011 Foreclosure Market Report finds the number of foreclosure filings in the month dropped 9%, compared with March, and 34% from April 2010, mostly due to delays in foreclosure processing.
The April decline marks the seventh straight month the total number of default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions decreased year over year, down to a 40-month low.
RealtyTrac executives reiterate, however, that the slowdown is not driven by a housing recovery lifting people out of foreclosure, but by the "massive delays in processing foreclosures" that indicate the recent housing market stagnation will persist.
Foreclosures completed in the first quarter of 2011 took an average of 400 days from the initial default notice to the REO status, up two full months from the 340 days reported in the first quarter of 2010 and more than double the average 151 days it took to foreclose in the first quarter of 2007.
The foreclosure process took much longer in states with more stringent foreclosure-prevention legislation.
