Foreclosure notices in metro Atlanta fell this month to their lowest level since 2001.
The 13-county region saw 2,066 foreclosure notices in October, the second lowest number this year, according to a report released Monday from Kennesaw-based Equity Depot.
September saw 2,522 notices, according to Equity Depot.
Moreover, the decline is part of a long trend, as metro Atlanta’s housing slowly and painfully returns toward health.
Notices for this month were down 47 percent from October of last year. They are 81 percent lower than October of 2010 at the height of housing crisis.
Foreclosure notices do not always mean the loss of a home. Sometimes, the owner pays what is owed and keeps the home from being sold at auction the next month. A precise count of actual foreclosures is not available, but Equity Depot estimates that roughly half of properties whose owners get notices end up being sold.
Whether the homeowner does end up losing the house or not, the number of notices is seen as a general barometer of stress in the housing market, as well as in the economy: a signal of trouble that owners are having trouble making their monthly mortgage payments.
