Fewer Hawaii property owners fell into foreclosure last year in continuation of a trend that began in 2014, according to state data.
The number of new foreclosure cases filed in state court against property owners statewide fell 13.7 percent to 1,261 last year from 1,461 the year before.
It was the fifth consecutive annual decrease, and suggests that modest growth in jobs, personal income and the general state economy over these years is helping homeowners avoid mortgage defaults.
Still, destabilizing personal events such as divorces, bad financial decisions, illnesses and other circumstances contributed to foreclosure even in the expanding economy where interest rates have remained relatively low and home values have generally appreciated.
According to the state Judiciary, which published the foreclosure case data, such lawsuits in Hawaii peaked in 2013 at 3,430 cases. The decline began in 2014 when 2,084 cases were filed, and case volume has continued to fall since then.
Hawaii foreclosure data before 2013 is problematic to compare because of repeated changes made to state foreclosure law.
Up until 2011 most Hawaii foreclosure cases were conducted out of court in a nonjudicial process that homeowner advocates contended was unfair to borrowers and led to abuses by lenders.
State lawmakers overhauled foreclosure rules in mid-2011 to require all foreclosure cases by lenders against homeowners to be filed in state court, and additional tweaks in more recent years were made that sometimes required lenders to refile cases.
Cases filed in court can include actions against owners of commercial real estate and actions initiated by condominium associations against homeowners who fail to pay maintenance fees or other assessments. Condo association cases, however, also can be done through the nonjudicial process.
Other foreclosure cases, including actions involving timeshare properties, are typically done through the nonjudicial process, which isn’t counted in Judiciary data.
NO PLACE TO CALL HOME
New Hawaii foreclosure cases filed in state court, including the year-over-year percentage change:
YEAR TOTAL CHANGE
2018 1,261 -14%
2017 1,461 -16%
2016 1,734 -5%
2015 1,826 -12%
2014 2,084 -39%
2013 3,430 3%
2012 3,326 21%
2011 2,757 107%
2010 1,331 *
*Many foreclosures by mortgage lenders were conducted out of court in 2010. That stopped in mid-2011.
ON THE MOVE
Territorial Savings Bank has announced that Ted McCrea has been appointed senior vice president of the bank’s Branch Operations Department. He is responsible for the operation of 29 branches. McCrea has more than 45 years of banking experience at Territorial Savings Bank, including having served as a management trainee in 1973 as well as a branch manager for various branches, and he became vice president operations officer in 2006.
MacArthur Sotheby’s International Realty has announced that Lovette Llantos is its new broker- in-charge of the Kailua-Kona office. Llantos served as a manager at a Fortune 10 company for 18 years and has spent 20 years in the real estate industry.
The Beall Corp. has announced that Julia K. Matsuura is the new vice president of its Honolulu office. Prior to joining the Hawaii- based commercial real estate company, Matsuura worked at Colliers International for five years and, five years prior to that, at CBRE.
