At the end of May, for the fourth month in a row, there were less than 300 foreclosure starts in El Paso County, which puts the county’s foreclosure start rate at two-thirds of the rate last year.Even if an expected increase in foreclosures occurs later, the annual total could be less than 4,000 – the lowest in the past four years, according to the El Paso County Public Trustee May report by trustee Tom Mowle.The public trustee’s office handles foreclosures in the county.Another sign of decreasing foreclosures is that lenders aren’t taking as many foreclosed properties to auction.The number of cured (fixed through financial agreements between debtor and creditors) defaults for the year is running a third higher than last year, and withdrawn foreclosures are almost keeping pace with last year, according to the report.A third sign of improvement is the percentage of foreclosed homes purchased by investors rather than banks.In May, 14.5 percent of properties at auction went to third parties, compared with the normal rate of 10 percent.Mowle wasn’t as positive about deed releases. (A deed is released when a mortgage is paid off, so deed releases are an indication of private party sales.)Just 2,216 deeds were released in May – the lowest number since February 2010.However, the report noted that the monthly average of releases is a bit ahead of last year, and the year-to-date total is well ahead of last year, which was the worst year for releases since 2001.Mowle stated in the report that the “local housing recovery is in the future, not the present. The drop in foreclosures is the first step to making that recovery possible.”There were 79 foreclosure starts in the 80831 ZIP code from January 1 to June 20, compared with 130 foreclosure starts in the same period last year, according to the public trustee Web site: http://elpasopublictrustee.com.
