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Aug 14, 2008 1:32 pm US/Eastern
Foreclosure Filings Rise 11.2 Percent In N.J.
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) ―
Foreclosure filings in New Jersey rose 11.2 percent last month compared to July 2007, according to data released Thursday.
The increase was less than the national rate, where foreclosure notices jumped 55 percent from last July as the dramatic decline in the U.S. housing market continued.
New Jersey ranked 19th among the states in foreclosure activity, with one filing for every 751 households. The national pace is one for every 464 households.
The report from Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac also found that New Jersey foreclosure activity in July dropped 7.6 percent from June.
The company monitors default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions. Some 931 New Jersey homes were repossessed in July.
That figure nearly doubled from June and was 2.5 times higher than in July 2007, said Patrick O'Keefe, the former chief executive of the New Jersey Builders Association.
"Recently enacted federal legislation should, on net, reduce the number of foreclosure filings later this year," said O'Keefe, director of economic research at J.H. Cohn, an accounting and consulting firm based in Roseland.
"Nevertheless, we can expect the absolute number of filings and (foreclosure) acquisitions to rise through the first half of 2009, due in part to continuing defaults on nonprime mortgages," he said.
New Jersey foreclosures figured in two recent news stories.
In Saddle Brook this week, authorities said a man held Bergen County sheriff's officers at gunpoint as they tried to evict his 88-year-old mother from her foreclosed home. The man surrendered after a SWAT team arrived.
Earlier this month, a 44-pound cat was found wandering in Voorhees after his owner lost her home to foreclosure. The large cat was adopted after making television appearances.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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