Number of foreclosure cases in isles drops for 2 months in a row

Many parts of Hawaii’s economy rebounded from recession a considerable time ago. Tourism arrivals broke a record last year, real estate is getting hot, employment keeps rising and bankruptcies have fallen for more than two years. Foreclosures, however, seemed to be stuck.

Now, emerging data may finally suggest that fewer Hawaii homeowners are getting into foreclosure trouble.

The number of new foreclosure cases in May and June were lower than in the same months last year, according to figures from the state Judiciary.

That’s the first time this year that year-over-year declines occurred.

In May, there were 346 foreclosure cases initiated by lenders, a 13 percent decline from 397 in the same month last year. In June, there were 219 new cases, down 52 percent from 458 a year earlier.

There had been plenty of declines in foreclosure case volumes last year compared with 2011 and in 2011 compared with 2010, but those were influenced by adjustments that lenders made in response to the Legislature overhauling state foreclosure law twice in the last two years.

The declines in May and June appear to be more organic, according to observers. Also supporting the idea of a declining trend is a report released last week by real estate and financial services firm CoreLogic that said 5.6 percent of Hawaii home mortgages were delinquent more than 90 days in June, down from 6.6 percent a year earlier.

Local foreclosure attorney Marvin Dang said the rising economy, reduced unemployment, and more efforts by lenders to modify loans and avoid the state’s lengthy court foreclosure process are probably helping tap down new foreclosure cases.

"I think generally what’s been happening is the amount of accounts going through foreclosure has been declining from the beginning of the year," he said.

The number of new foreclosure cases rose from just under 400 in January and February to 450 in March. Since then, volume has generally fallen.

While seasonal factors can affect month-to-month changes, continuing to track year-over-year changes will be problematic because the last overhaul to state foreclosure law triggered a slowdown in case filings that began last year in July.

Last July there were just 74 foreclosure cases filed. The number dropped to 59 in August and 58 in September before beginning to rise again as lenders implemented measures to comply with the new changes in the law that included having attorneys attest to the accuracy of documents filed by lenders in cases.

There were 234 new cases filed in July this year, though the Judiciary may revise the figure higher over the next month or two as some neighbor island court circuits report more foreclosure case data.