RealtyTrac’s Foreclosure Market Report determined that foreclosure filings were down 28 percent year-over-year in January and 7 percent from December.

Foreclosure filings were down 28 percent year-over-year in January and 7 percent from December, according to the latest Foreclosure Market Report from research firm RealtyTrac.

In addition, U.S. foreclosure starts hit a 79-month low, decreasing 11 percent from last month and decreasing 28 percent from January of 2012.

RealtyTrac Foreclosure Market Report Findings

What else was important from the foreclosure market report?

• REOs decreased five percent from last month and decreased 24 percent from January of 2012. This has been the lowest level since February of 2008.
• Scheduled foreclosure auctions increased from last month in 26 states and Washington D.C.
• For the first time since 2007, California did not have the largest amount of foreclosure filings of any state–this year, Florida took that distinction.
• The 10 states with the highest foreclosure rates are Florida (one in every 300 housing units), Nevada (one in every 344 housing units), Illinois (one in every 375 housing units), Arizona (one in every 501 housing units), Georgia (one in every 513 housing units), Ohio (one in every 612 housing units), Washington (one in every 674 housing units), California (one in every 753 housing units), Indiana (one in every 784 housing units) and Michigan (one in every 837 housing units).

RealtyTrac included a graph in the Foreclosure Market Report, showing the decrease of foreclosure filings in January.

Foreclosure Starts at Home

According to the RealtyTrac study, the foreclosure rate is to be very low in Houston, with one in every 1,495 housing units with a foreclosure filing. The highest amount of foreclosures are in the 77051 zip code (with 18 foreclosed properties, meaning the rate is one in every 366 housing units), and the lowest amount are in the 77009 zip code (with one foreclosure and a rate of one in every 15,752 housing units).

Tom Huckabee, a Realtor at Keller Williams in Lake Conroe, works in one of the towns with a very low foreclosure rate. There were 10 to 15 foreclosed houses in his market, and all of them were sold very quickly.

“Our market is really [solid], and investments are popping in there,” Huckabee said.

With that being said, it appears that the Houston market is starting 2013 off to a strong start.