PrintPrint




Year-to-year foreclosures up across South Carolina for February




Charleston and Berkeley counties saw an uptick in year-to-year foreclosure numbers in February and Dorchester County’s figures went down by more than 31%. Across South Carolina, the numbers of distressed properties was up nearly 26%.



By Andy Owens
aowens@scbiznews.com
Published March 11, 2010

Foreclosures were up nearly 26% across South Carolina in February compared to the same month last year, according to data released this morning.

National real estate tracking firm RealtyTrac reported that South Carolina had 3,114 foreclosure filings during the month and more than 1,000 homes had been repossessed by lenders.

Those numbers indicate that one out of every 660 homes in the state is in distress, which ranks South Carolina 20th in the nation for the number of foreclosures. In February 2009, one out of every 880 homes had a filing.

RealtyTrac also reported that six states accounted for more than 60% of the foreclosures in the United States in February.

California led the way, with 68,562 properties receiving a foreclosure filing during the month. Foreclosure activity in Florida increased nearly 15% from the previous month. Increasing foreclosure activity boosted Michigan’s total to third-highest among the states.

The other three states leading the nation included Illinois, Arizona and Texas. Georgia was the only Southern state in the top nine, with 12,177 filings and more than 3,700 repossessions of distressed properties.

Foreclosures across major markets in S.C. for February 2010


County

Lowcountry
Berkeley
Charleston
Dorchester

Midlands
Lexington
Newberry
Orangeburg
Richland
Sumter

Upstate
Anderson
Greenville
Spartanburg

Statewide
National

% change Jan. to Feb.


14.65%
-48.50%
54.05%

 
-4%
100%*
-42.31%
-2.55%
64.29%

 
190.2%
44.39%
98.41%

0.42%
-2.28%

Actual numbers
in February


180
310
171

 
216
6
30
268
69

 
148
566
125

3,114
308,524

% change Feb. ’09-’10

 
7.78%
8.01%
-31.87%

 
208.57%
-70%
-23.08%
64.42%
305.88%

 
300%
12.08%
228.95%

25.92%
6.22%

Source: RealtyTrac’s U.S. Foreclosure Market Report

*Newberry County had three foreclosures in January, which accounted for the dramatic percentage reported in February.

PrintPrint