Foreclosure activity in Colorado hit a five-year low during the first month of this year—although state officials say the housing market is not out of the woods yet.
Both new foreclosure filings and sales at auction have been trending downward for 14 straight months in Colorado.
Ryan McMaken, an economist with the state Division of Housing, says while that’s a good sign, it’s not clear yet how the recent multi-state, multi-billion dollar foreclosure settlement will impact that trend.
“I’m now hearing that a lot of these servicers had been holding back a little bit in terms of foreclosure processing as they waited for the outcome of the Attorney General’s agreement, the settlement that came down last week. And so now some people are expecting those numbers to come up a little bit.”
Overall, new foreclosure filings were down by 28.2 percent from January 2011, with 1,939 reported. Completed foreclosures were down 23.3 percent from the year before, with 1,150 sales at auction reported.
Both figures represent the lowest January totals in five years.