Foreclosure tracking firm RealtyTrac has announced November’s foreclosure numbers and, while foreclosure activity is down 10% from last month’s number, the news isn’t happy. Foreclosures are up 68% from November 2006, with 201,950 foreclosure filings—up from 120,334 this time last year. Also worth mentioning, last year’s numbers weren’t exactly low—they were up 68% from 2005.

The foreclosure filing numbers include notices of default, pending lawsuits, auctions, and back repurchases or REOs. An increase in REOs is a troubling statistic because it means that banks are unable to sell properties at auction, and are being forced to keep them.

Here are some of the numbers for the month of November:

Notices of Default: 35,096
Auctions: 71,965
Bank Repurchases: 46,438

When comparing this year’s numbers to 2006, one can see that the increase in foreclosure numbers comes mainly from auctions and repurchases. There were only 4,069 more notices of default served this November, but 81,616 more filings in all.

FORECLOSURE ACTIVITY DECREASES 10 PERCENT IN NOVEMBER [Realty Trac]
(Photo:mugley)

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