Follow up on South Jersey Foreclosure info

From the Atlantic City Press:

Area foreclosures well below state and national figures By KEVIN POST Business Editor, 609-272-7250 (Published: November 3, 2007)

Atlantic and Cape May counties are trending better than the nation and rest of New Jersey on a key measure of real estate industry distress - household foreclosures.

In the third quarter, Atlantic County foreclosure filings declined 7 percent from the prior quarter while those in Cape May County increased 13 percent, both below the statewide foreclosure filing rise of 16 percent and far below the nationwide increase of 30 percent, according to RealtyTrac Inc.

For the year ending in the third quarter, Cape May County's rise in foreclosure filings was 10 percent and Atlantic County's was 46 percent, compared to 53 percent for the state and 100 percent for the nation.

The three-month period saw 436 filings in Atlantic County; 162 in Cape May County; 13,655 in New Jersey; and 635,159 in the nation.
Trends aside, local figures also showed fewer households in foreclosure per 1,000 households in southern New Jersey than elsewhere.

For the third quarter, Cape May County had 1.6 foreclosures per 1,000 households; Atlantic County had 3.5 in foreclosure; New Jersey had four foreclosures per 1,000 households; and the United States had 5.1 in foreclosure for each 1,000 households.

RealtyTrac is a foreclosure tracking firm based in Irvine, Calif. (End)
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Okay...so lets focus on the Atlantic County data...3.5 foreclosures per 1,000 households. This amounts to 1 foreclosure per 286 households or a whopping 0.35% (partial loss...see previous blog).

I wonder how many credit card, financial, auto, etc... lenders would like to have a 0.35% loan loss? I would bet all of them!

The folks who have elected foreclosure will be in a messy credit situation for a few years and I am sorry that their families will be disrupted. But many of these loans were fringe loans and probably should not have been made (100+% loan to value).

The increases in foreclosures make great hedlines and support the publisher's business. But the reality in the Atlantic County market is that there are very few homes in this position and we'll see where the trend heads over the next year.

By the way, thank goodness we don't live in Nevada, California, or Florida.

TW