The metro Atlanta housing market took another encouraging step toward full recovery this months with a sharp decline in foreclosure filings for May.
There were 1,772 filings in the 13 core counties this month, a 22 percent fall from 2,277 the month before, according to a report provided to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution by Equity Depot.
Barry Bramlett, CEO of the Kennesaw-based company, which collects the data, said filings are “almost back to January levels after a bit of an increase over the last 3 months.”
Foreclosure notices are an important measure of market distress, since they are so painful to households and so damaging to the real estate market. Foreclosures began rising in 2006 – a year before the housing bubble peaked in Atlanta and two years before the start of the national recession.
During the first five months of 2010 – when home loss was at its worst – the region recorded more than 50,000 foreclosure filings. Monday’s report showed the extent of improvement since: In the first five months of this year, the region logged 10,029 filings, according to Equity Depot.
Filings in 2015 are down 15 percent from the same period last year.
Foreclosure filings do not always mean the loss of a home. If the owner pays what is owed, he or she can often keep the home from being sold at auction the next month.
But a filing nearly always is a sign of financial stress. And sometimes the attempt to prevent foreclosure only postpones the inevitable.
A wave of foreclosures means a series of homes likely to sell at depressed prices, which pulls down values of other homes in the area. While down dramatically overall, foreclosures remain a problem in some metro Atlanta neighborhoods.
