Mr Williamsburg, Revolutionary ideas on real estate!Hampton Roads Virginia

Banks filed foreclosures on roughly 205,000 homes in December, the lowest monthly total since November 2007, according to RealtyTrac, which said the 1.8 million foreclosures for 2011 dropped nearly 35% from 2010. .

Unexpected delays — including robo-signing issues that first arose in late 2010 — kept 2011 numbers lower than expected.  Still, one in every 69 homes received at least one filing.

Foreclosure filings plunged to a three-year low in Hampton Roads last year after reaching record highs in 2010, according to a report to be released today.

In Hampton Roads the number of properties with at least one foreclosure filing fell to 6,988 in 2011, down 45 percent from the 12,815 properties with a filing the previous year, according to RealtyTrac, a foreclosure-monitoring service based in Irvine, Calif.

There are currently 863 bank owned  foreclosed homes (REO) for sale in Hampton Roads and 25 in Williamsburg/ James City County / Upper York County

Last year was the first time since RealtyTrac began collecting foreclosure data in 2005 that the annual number of local properties with a foreclosure filing has declined year-over-year, suggesting that the problem might be easing.

"Foreclosures were in full delay mode in 2011, resulting in a dramatic drop in foreclosure activity for the year," said Brandon Moore, RealtyTrac’s new CEO. "The lack of clarity regarding many of the documentation and legal issues plaguing the foreclosure industry means that we are continuing to see a highly dysfunctional foreclosure process that is inefficiently dealing with delinquent mortgages — particularly in states with a judicial foreclosure process."

Problems arose late in 2010 of improper filings at the state court houses. Mortgage servicers and third-party firms will spend much of 2012 sorting through any financial harm done to borrowers, and settlement talks with the state attorneys general continue.

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