New foreclosure filings in Colorado are falling this year at a pace that could make for the lowest totals since 2006, the state Division of Housing reported Thursday.
Third-quarter new filings declined 11.8 percent compared to the same period last year. For the first nine months of the year, filings are down 2.2 percent to 22,920.
Satewide foreclosure filings peaked at 46,394 in 2009. The totals have dropped every year since.
The decline suggests continued recovery in the Colorado real estate market with home sales and prices rising.
Foreclosure auction sales — a lagging indicator that represents the completion of foreclosures filed months earlier — were down 10.6 percent in the third quarter and down 23.6 percent year to date.
"Completed foreclosures continue to head down at a steady pace," said Ryan McMaken, economist for the Colorado Division of Housing. "As home sales and home prices, rise, it's getting a little easier to avoid that final foreclosure sale through a short sale or even a conventional sale."
