Foreclosures climb in florida, illinois as lenders resume home seizures

Foreclosure filings rose for the first time in more than a year in Florida, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Illinois as lenders resumed property seizures after a probe of documentation, according to RealtyTrac Inc.

In Florida, one of the hardest-hit states in the housing crash, notices of default, auction or seizure rose 14 percent in January from a year earlier, to 12,102. They increased 69 percent in Indiana, 24 percent in Pennsylvania and 9 percent in Illinois, RealtyTrac said today. All are so-called judicial states, where courts supervise property seizures and add time to the process.

The gains may continue after U.S. banks agreed Feb. 9 to a $25 billion settlement over abusive foreclosure practices, according to Irvine, California-based RealtyTrac. Across the U.S., a total of 210,941 properties received filings in January, up 3 percent from December and down 19 percent from a year earlier. One in every 624 households got a filing.

“We expect the pattern of increasing foreclosures to continue in the coming months, especially given the finalized mortgage and foreclosure settlement,” RealtyTrac Chief Executive Officer Brandon Moore said in a statement. Even with the surges in judicial states, January was the 16th straight month that filings fell year-over-year, according to the data company.

Source: Bloomberg.com