The rate of foreclosure among outstanding mortgage loans in Tacoma was 3.95 percent in December last year, an increase of 1.77 percentage points compared with December 2011, according to data released Tuesday.
The rate in December, 2011, was 2.18 percent, said CoreLogic, a California-based data analytics firm. Foreclosure activity in Tacoma was higher than the national foreclosure rate, which was 2.96 percent for December 2012.
Also in Tacoma, the mortgage delinquency rate increased. According to CoreLogic data for December, 9.67 percent of mortgage loans were 90 days or more delinquent compared with 9.26 percent for the same period last year.
The statewide 90-day deliquency rate was 6.28 percent in December, the firm said in a release. This is less than the rate a year before, at 6.33 percent.
The Tacoma foreclosure rate, at 3.95 percent, was the highest for any month in CoreLogic’s records, which go back to January 2010. The 90-day delinquency rate, at 9.67 percent, is less than seen in every month since June 2012.
In other housing news Tuesday, Seattle-area house prices slipped 0.5 percent in December after hitting a two-year high in November, according to the closely watched Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Index. Only two of the 19 other metropolitan areas that Case-Shiller tracks saw steeper month-over-month declines. The composite 20-city index rose 0.2 percent.
This area’s drop seemed to be largely the result of seasonal factors – the holidays usually are a slow time for home sales. When adjusted to account for seasonal influences, Seattle-area prices rose 0.7 percent month-over-month. And prices were up 8.2 percent from December 2011, the eighth straight month of year-over-year gains and the biggest increase since the housing bubble popped.
The numbers are for the Seattle metropolitan area: King, Snohomish and Pierce counties. The December statistics, the most recent available, were released Tuesday.
Nineteen of the 20 cities that Case-Shiller tracks posted year-over-year gains in December; seven of them had double-digit jumps, led by Phoenix at 23 percent and San Francisco at 14.4 percent. The 20-city composite index rose 6.8 percent in 2012.
Staff writer C.R. Roberts and Eric Pryne of The Seattle Times contributed to this report.
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