Oahu Home Sales

Honolulu had one of the lowest foreclosure rates among the top 100 metropolitan areas in the United States during the first quarter of 2008. RealtyTrac said metro areas in California and Florida accounted for 13 of the top 20 foreclosure rates. Ninety of 100 metro markets saw foreclosure activity increase in the quarter.

Honolulu ranked 99th for foreclosure filings of the top 100 metropolitan areas, according to RealtyTrac’s Q1 2008 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report. Honolulu had a total of 155 foreclosures, or one filing for every 2,147, up 1.3 percent from fourth quarter 2007 and up 51.9 percent from first quarter 2007.

There were 371 foreclosure filings in Hawaii during the first quarter of 2008, according to the report from California-based RealtyTrac. RealtyTrac’s count provides more geographic detail of the local foreclosure picture compared with a monthly RealtyTrac count by state, but is still a somewhat imprecise measure of homes threatened by foreclosure. Data collected by the firm includes a range of document filings in the foreclosure process, from default notices to auction notices, so the data may include more than one filing on the same property. But Hawai’i foreclosure actions may be underrepresented because default notices typically aren’t filed publicly in nonjudicial foreclosures, which are more prevalent in Hawai’i compared with many other states. Still, RealtyTrac does count nonjudicial foreclosure sale notices.

Though O’ahu’s housing market is cooling, there are relatively few foreclosures thanks to a relatively stable job market and median home prices. Also, new home construction didn’t flood the market with inventory, and local lenders say local borrowers didn’t take out as many of the riskier loans as their counterparts in some Mainland markets.

Hawaii ranked 44th in the country for its rate of one foreclosure filing for every 1,348 households. Foreclosures were up 18 percent from the fourth quarter of 2007, and up 109 percent from first quarter 2007, the report said.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 at 10:38 pm and is filed under For Buyers, For Sellers, Market Watch, Updates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.