---
title: "The Foreclosure Story of May 2012"
url: https://afdcenter.com/the-foreclosure-story-of-may-2012/
description: "Learn about what's going on with the current foreclosure market and get The Foreclosure Story of May 2012."
published: 2012-06-26
updated: 2012-06-26
---

# The Foreclosure Story of May 2012

Published 2012-06-26

Entry

June 26, 2012·[Uncategorized](https://afdcenter.com/category/uncategorized/)

Earlier this year some of the biggest players in the US mortgage game agreed on a $25 billion settlement package with the government, which ended investigations into incorrect foreclosure practices . This was finally pushed through in April and Mays foreclosure stats seem to indicate that lenders are more confident in pursuing foreclosures than they have been in recent months.

### The Bare Statistics

- Foreclosure activity kicked on in May, showing an increase of just over 9 percent in foreclosure rates when compared with the previous month.
- This meant that a total of 205,990 homes experienced mortgage defaults, went through a foreclosure auction or were repossessed by lenders.
- That figure equates to 1 in every 639 homes having a foreclosure filed against them in May.
- This was the first time since February that the total number of foreclosures went past the 200,000 mark.
- Relative to the same month of 2011, the figures still represented a decrease of just over 4 percent.

### Foreclosure Trend In 2012

- In 2012 we have seen lenders becoming increasing open to short sales and May was no different.
- Why is this? Well pushing through a foreclosure is an expensive, time consuming process for lenders and they typically lose more money doing that than they would by allowing a short sale. Statistics show that if a lender allows the borrower to sell short, that sale fetches (on average) $27,000 more than the sale of a home at a foreclosure auction.

### Worst Affected States in May

- May saw a new name at the top of the foreclosure list. For the first time since the beginning of 2006, Georgia’s foreclosure statistics exceeded those of any other state. 1 out of every 300 homes had a foreclosure filed and that represented a 33 percent jump from April’s figures and a 30 percent increase from the same month last year.
- Arizona was the second worst affected state and posted figures 24 percent higher than April. This was meant that 1 in every 305 homes had a foreclosure notice drop through their letterbox.
- Next up was Nevada, with 1 in every 313 homes receiving the news that they were being dragged into the dreaded foreclosure process.
- California was fourth, with a rate of 1 in every 324 homes with Illinois and Florida placed fifth and sixth place.