Staff Report
Published July 15, 2010
Foreclosures were up more than 34% during the first six months of 20010 in South Carolina compared to the same period last year, which represents fewer than 1% of the homes in the state, according to a market report released today.
The state ranked 20th among states with the highest rates of homes facing everything from default notices to repossessions by banks, according to RealtyTrac, a national foreclosure research firm, which released its mid-year report Thursday.
RealtyTrac’s data showed that one home out of every 117 homes in South Carolina were in distress. Foreclosures have skyrocketed over the last two years and have become a lagging indicator of the struggling U.S. economy.
Although there were 17,616 filings from January to June in South Carolina, that’s fewer than 1% of the homes in the state, RealtyTrac reports. Nearly 6% of the homes in Nevada, which has the highest rates of foreclosures, had at least one filing against them.
RealtyTrac CEO James J. Saccacio said the pace of properties entering foreclosure slowed across the U.S. as lenders preempted or delayed foreclosure proceedings with more short sales and loan modifications.
“Meanwhile the pace of properties completing the foreclosure process through bank repossession quickened as lenders cleared out a backlog of distressed inventory delayed by foreclosure prevention efforts in 2009,” he said.
The Lowcountry had the highest rates of foreclosures during the first half of 2010, RealtyTrac numbers show.
Dorchester County had the highest rate in the state with one home out of every 55 in distress. Beaufort County followed close behind with one out of every 57 homes. Berkeley County finished third with one out of every 70 homes in distress. Charleston County was fourth with one out of every 72 homes.
Greenville County finished the worst five with one home out of every 79. Spartanburg County ranked 10th and Anderson ranked 13th.
In the Midlands, Richland and Lexington counties ranked seventh and eighth, respectively.
The county with the lowest rate was Bamberg County with one home out of every 3,588 or a rate of .03%.
