Michigan is experiencing an uptick in initial home foreclosure filings.
Michigan has seen 45 straight months of year-over-year declines in the number of home foreclosure filings.
But for the last two months, the number of foreclosure notices have been inching higher. In July, the number of foreclosure filings increased by 26% over the previous month. However, July’s foreclosure filings were down 22% from July 2013.
Daren Bloomquist is with Realty Trac. He was surprised to see a 6% increase in foreclosure starts last month.
“It could be a sign that the market’s just normalizing and there’s going to be some ups and downs,” says Bloomquist. “But it did stand out to us because it was the first increase in those foreclosure starts in almost two years.”
Bloomquist says Detroit’s home foreclosure rate continues to decline. In fact, the Detroit market home foreclosure rate ranks 98th among the nation’s largest 200 cities.
Bloomquist says the increase in foreclosure starts last month occurred largely outside of Michigan’s largest city.
Overall, Michigan has the nation’s 18th-highest home foreclosure rate.
At times during the Great Recession, Michigan had the nation’s highest home foreclosure rate.