Whole lot of Queens foreclosures

From The Real Deal:

U.S. foreclosure filings — including default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — are down 3 percent year-over-year, according to a year-end foreclosure market report issued by RealtyTrac. The nationwide average of housing units that had at least one foreclosure filing in 2012 came in at 1.39 percent — or one in every 72 units — which is down from the 1.45 percent tallied in 2011. But despite the positive news on the national front, foreclosure activity increased in 25 states in 2012, including New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Queens, RealtyTrac found, was particularly hard-hit.

New York had the longest average 2012 foreclosure time: 1,089 days — up from the 1,072 days recorded in the third quarter and 1,019 recorded in the fourth quarter of 2011.

But even more striking is the year-over-year increase of foreclosure filings in Queens — a total of 4,853 in 2012. According to RealtyTrac numbers provided to The Real Deal, this figure is up a whopping 163.9 percent year-over-year, though still below the national average in terms of the percentage of units with foreclosure filings. Though Blomquist says the increase is due to the delayed New York foreclosure process, he said the impact of Hurricane Sandy — most notably in the Rockaways — could affect the numbers, as foreclosed owners could have storm-damaged properties not worth keeping.
“The impact of the storm could add to the number,” he said.