Foreclosures fell steeply in Q1
Further to other data I have posted recently, the number of foreclosures has seen a significant fall in the first quarter of the year, adding to speculation that the property market recovery continues.
The number of foreclosures on homes in Spain fell in Q1 by 31.2%, to stand at 6,118 actions, according to the latest data released by the National Institute of Statistics. This represents the largest single drop since the INE began keeping records.
In total, there were 19,354 foreclosure actions started in the first quarter of the year, 14.1% fewer than in the previous quarter, and 37.9% fewer than the same quarter in 2015.
Of the total, foreclosures on homes accounted for 58.3%. Of those, 31.6% (6,118) were on home registered by persons, while 17.7% were on homes registered by a business.
When looking at the type of property, 13.6% of foreclosures were on new property, while the remaining 86.4% were on used properties. On new homes, the number is 31.6% lower than the same period last year, while on used property the figures show a decline of 37.5%.
When you look at the total number of family homes in Spain (18,408,300), foreclosures were initiated on 0.03%.
If we look at foreclosures in terms of when the mortgage was registered, 20.4% of actions initiated between January and March correspond to loans signed in 2007 when prices were at their peak. 15.6% were on mortgages signed in 2006, and 11.8% were from 2008. Thus, the period of 2006 – 2008 accounted for 58.5% of foreclosures started in 2016 Q1.
Region
By region, the highest number of foreclosures were seen in Andalusia with 3,144 actions. Catalonia came next with 2,113, followed by Valencia where Q1 saw actions on 2,094 defaulted mortgages.
The lowest number of actions was seen in Cantabria with only 43, La Rioja with 54 and Navarra with 61 foreclosures.
