The number of U.S. homeowners who were put on notice for being behind on their mortgage payments fell in May to the lowest level since 2006, the result of a slowing housing market and lingering delays in banks’ foreclosure process.
Mortgage lenders, many of which are still working through foreclosure documentation problems that surfaced last fall, also took back fewer properties in May, the second monthly decline in a row, foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday.
The delays continue to push the 2 million U.S. homes already on banks’ books or in some stage of foreclosure further into limbo and put banks on track to repossess about 200,000 fewer homes this year than in 2010, the firm said.