Foreclosures In South Carolina

Foreclosures down at midyear across most of SC

Foreclosure filings were down in most areas of South Carolina during the first six months of 2011 compared with the same period last year, according to a midyear market report released this morning.

RealtyTrac’s U.S. Foreclosure Market Report for the country’s 211 metropolitan statistical areas with more than 200,000 residents found that the Charleston-North Charleston MSA had the highest rate of foreclosure filings in the state at midyear, with one out of every 84 homes having received at least a notice of default.

Compared with the first six months of 2010, foreclosure filings in the Charleston region were down more than 17%.

Greenville’s MSA saw the largest decline in year-over-year foreclosure numbers. The Upstate region posted a nearly 29% decline in filings against distressed properties in the first six months of 2011 compared with that time frame in 2010.

The Myrtle Beach-Conway area and the Columbia region were the only regions of South Carolina that saw a year-to-year increase, RealtyTrac reported, but both areas had a foreclosure rate less than Charleston’s. Columbia’s foreclosure rate was 19% higher than Greenville’s and 24% lower than Charleston’s.

Nationally, RealtyTrac reported that foreclosures were down in 178 of the 211 metro areas as of midyear 2011. Cities in California, Nevada and Arizona accounted for the 10 highest rates of foreclosure in the first half of this year.

“Foreclosure activity continued to slow in the first half of 2011, especially in the most foreclosure-saturated markets and in markets where the judicial foreclosure process is used,” said RealtyTrac CEO James J. Saccacio. “The 20 metro areas with the biggest year-over-year decreases in foreclosure activity were all in states with judicial foreclosure processes — New York, Maryland, Florida, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Illinois.”

Foreclosure numbers in S.C.