Hawaii’s foreclosure rate improves

Hawaii's foreclosure ranking for March moved closer to the bottom of a national survey as the number of foreclosures dropped 16.1 percent from the prior month.

And while Hawaii's March foreclosure rate was 84.6 percent above the same month a year ago, the state's national ranking dropped to 45 from 43, according to the latest projections released yesterday by RealtyTrac, an online marketplace for foreclosure properties.

Altogether, RealtyTrac reported that there were 120 foreclosures filed in Hawaii in March, or one foreclosure for every 4,167 households.

In February there were 143 foreclosures filed in Hawaii, or one foreclosure for every 3,434 households.

Nationally, RealtyTrac reported that there were default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions filed on 234,685 properties during the month, a 4.9 percent increase from the previous month and a 57.4 percent increase from March 2007.

The report also shows one in every 538 U.S. households had a foreclosure filing during the month.

On a year-over-year basis, RealtyTrac reported that default notices were up nearly 57 percent and bank repossessions were up nearly 129 percent, but auction notices were up only 32 percent, indicating that more defaulting homeowners are simply walking away and deeding their properties back to the foreclosing lender, said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac.

Nevada, California and Florida posted the top state foreclosure rates along with Georgia, Ohio, Michigan, Massachusetts and Maryland, according to RealtyTrac.

March foreclosures

Source: RealtyTrac