Longer processing timelines resulted in fewer filings in 2011

Drive around and you might see a lot of for-sale signs up, but the number going up as a result of a foreclosure is on the decline.

RealtyTrac's 2011 Year-End U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, released Jan. 12, shows a total of 2,698,967 foreclosure filings - default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions - on 1,887,777 properties in 2011, a decrease of 34 percent in total properties from 2010. Overall, foreclosure activity was 33 percent the 2009 total and 19 percent below the 2008 total. Total foreclosure activity and the foreclosure rate were both at their lowest annual level since 2007.

Despite the numbers, the most hard-hit area remain so.

More than 6 percent (one in 16) of Nevada housing units had at least one foreclosure filing in 2011, making it the state with the highest rate of foreclosure for the fifth consecutive year. Arizona, the second-highest state for foreclosures three years running, had a 4.14 percent of housing units (one in 24) with at least one foreclosure filing.

Part of the reason for the decline is because of delays in the foreclosure process, leading to an increase in the foreclosure timeline. In the fourth quarter of 2011, U.S. properties took nearly a year (348 days) to complete the foreclosure process, up from 336 days is Q3 and up form 305 days during Q4 2010. The state of New York documented the nation's longest foreclosure period, with those completing the process in Q4 2011 having taken an average of 1,019 days to close.