Default filings reach record in Treasure Valley

Default filings totaled 575 in October in Ada and Canyon counties combined, IdahoDataProviders.com reported. The 22.6 percent increase from September’s 460 filings marked the highest month-to-month gain ever recorded in the Treasure Valley, the company said, and compared to the previous single-month record of 483 in August of this year.

IdahoDataProviders.com principal Charlie Nate said in a release that the October total of 575 defaults – 351 in Ada County and 224 in Canyon County – exceeded his prediction for about 500 combined. The Ada County total was up 34 percent from a month earlier and up 111 percent from a year earlier. The Canyon County total was up 8 percent from a month earlier and up 87 percent from a year earlier.

“Hopefully, this number is an anomaly and not representative of the rate of new filings we will be seeing in the near future,” he said. “I don’t think the local real estate market can absorb over 500 new foreclosure properties hitting the market every month when total current pending sales are less than 500. This will cause a significant spike in the inventory, and this is the last thing the local market needs when it has been trying to shed excess inventory for the past two years.”

Defaults totaled 4,237 for the January-October period in Ada and Canyon counties, up 132 percent from a year earlier, the report said. But Nate said he expects the market to experience a seasonal slowdown in November and December, to about 400 new filings each month, “which will give the market a chance to breathe.”

Nate said in an interview that these are foreclosure starts, and that not properties involved will go all the way through the foreclosure process.

He said more than 1,350 properties are listed by the Boise-based Intermountain Multiple Listing Service as potential “short sales” as of early November – more than 12 percent of all listings – compared to 1,180 at the end of September. In a short sale, the lender agrees to accept a price that is less than the amount that the borrower owes.