Georgia 6th in foreclosure rate

Illinois

Arizona

Nevada

Georgia

Georgia ranked sixth in the nation in foreclosure rate in September, according to RealtyTrac’s U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, with one in 532 housing units in the state affected.

That’s about the norm, lately, and it’s been a lot worse: In May, Georgia had the highest foreclosure rate in the nation.

But foreclosure activity here declined nearly 20 percent from August to September, one of the bigger drops in the country for the period. Filings in the state have decreased more than 33 percent from September 2011.

The decreases in Georgia matched the pattern countrywide, although there were significant differences in foreclosure activity among individual states.

Across the U.S., foreclosure filings including default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions decreased 7 percent in from August to September, and 16 percent from September 2011. The total number of housing units affected nationwide was the lowest since July 2007.

Florida led the nation in foreclosure rate, followed by California, Illinois, Arizona and Nevada.

While foreclosure activity is down in Georgia and many states, thanks to a gradually recovering housing market, it is up in other states that have laws in place that slow down the foreclosure proceedings and have helped create a backlog of cases just now being processed.