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Kelley’s Market Trends: Foreclosures

The number of foreclosures has been steadily decreasing since the bottom of the local housing crisis at the end of 2011

By Jim Kelley

The number of foreclosures has steadily been decreasing since the bottom of the local housing crisis at the end of 2011. This week’s graph shows the total number of Trustee Deeds that have been recorded over the last seven-and-a-half years on a monthly basis.

Mortgages on properties with 40 acres or less are typically written with a Deed of Trust which allows the lender to foreclosure over a 120-day period.  Mortgages on tracts larger than 40 acres are done with mortgage documents that can take a year or longer for the foreclosure to occur.

In Flathead County there have only been 86 mortgage foreclosures on 40-plus acre tracts since the beginning of 2010, compared to 1,743 Trustee Deed foreclosures on smaller tracts. The high was in 2011 with 481 Trustee Deed foreclosures plus 11 full mortgage foreclosures.    

In the first four months of 2017, there have been 21 Trustee Deed foreclosures, which is down from 34 in the same period last year.  There were three larger tract foreclosures in the first four months of 2016 and three in that same period this year.

This graph includes residential, vacant land and commercial real estate. Based on the documents recorded, it is not possible to separate the various types of real estate.