Spokane foreclosures inch upward

Spokane’s foreclosure rate in August inched upward from one year earlier to 1.43 percent of all outstanding mortgage loans, according to real estate tracking company CoreLogic.

CoreLogic’s numbers include all notices of mortgage defaults and auction notifications. Not all defaults end up as foreclosures, the company notes.

CoreLogic said the Spokane foreclosure rate in August was 0.07 percentage points higher than the 1.36 percent rate one year earlier.

Foreclosures nationwide averaged 3.43 percent for August 2011, meaning Spokane is 2 percentage points lower, measuring all outstanding mortgages.

Recent numbers from the Spokane Association of Realtors for September show an increase in total distressed home sales and total home sales in the county.

Twenty-six percent of all sales of single-family homes in Spokane were distressed properties – either foreclosed or short sales in which the owner sold without any remaining equity.

One year earlier the number was 22.4 percent, said Rob Higgins, the association executive officer.

At the same time, September this year registered a total of 396 home sales in Spokane, up from 317 one year earlier.

That’s a positive sign, he added. Spokane home sales for the first six months of 2011 were down 20 percent from last year; but sales upticks in July, August and September leave the market only 6.6 percent down from 2010, Higgins said.