by Calculated Risk on 6/11/2009 02:49:00 AM

Note: Foreclosure "activity" is defined as Notice of Default (NODs), scheduled auctions and bank repossessions. A large number of NODs are cured, so this isn't the number of properties that the banks' repossess.

From RealtyTrac: U.S. Foreclosure Activity Decreases 6 Percent in May U.S.

RealtyTrac® ... today released its May 2009 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report™, which shows foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — were reported on 321,480 U.S. properties during the month, a decrease of 6 percent from the previous month but an increase of nearly 18 percent from May 2008. The report also shows that one in every 398 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing in May.

“May foreclosure activity was the third highest month on record, and marked the third straight month where the total number of properties with foreclosure filings exceeded 300,000 — a first in the history of our report,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “While defaults and scheduled foreclosure auctions were both down from the previous month, bank repossessions, or REOs, were up 2 percent thanks largely to substantial increases in several states, including Michigan, Arizona, Washington, Nevada, Oregon and New York. We expect REO activity to spike in the coming months as foreclosure delays and moratoria implemented by various state laws come to an end.”
emphasis added

The NODs are already spiking (most of the moratoriums have ended), but it takes awhile for this to lead to repossessions and REOs.

From Bloomberg: U.S. Foreclosure Filings Top 300,000 as Bank Seizures Loom

U.S. foreclosure filings surpassed 300,000 for the third straight month in May and may hit a record 1.8 million by the first half of the year, RealtyTrac Inc. said.
...
Additional U.S. home foreclosures will probably total 6.4 million by mid-2011, and inventories of foreclosed homes awaiting sale will probably peak in mid-2010 at about 2 million properties, JPMorgan Chase & Co. analysts led by John Sim wrote in a June 5 report.
...
The May total was the third-highest in RealtyTrac records dating to January 2005.