Experts Think Foreclosure Crisis Bottoming Out

September saw the fewest foreclosures nationwide in five years. Alaska continued its downward trend as well. Some real-estate experts think the foreclosure crisis is bottoming out.

Alaska is faring better than the country … and most of the states. So reports RealtyTrac in its Foreclosure News Report released Thursday.

Daren Bloomquist is vice-president at RealtyTrac. He says there were 146 foreclosures in Alaska in September.

“We’re actually pretty close to a healthy number of foreclosures in Alaska, compared to other states. If I go back even to 2005 and 2006, before we saw the foreclosure crisis hit in full force, at least nationwide, the average was 105 properties with foreclosure filings a month,” Bloomquist said.

So the shorthand, Bloomquist says, is that about 100 foreclosures a month, for the amount of available housing units, is okay.

Alaska didn’t experience the wild price fluctuations during the housing bubble as much as other states.

There were 430 foreclosures in the state in the last quarter. That’s a decrease of nearly 35 percent from the same quarter last year. Most of the foreclosures in the state were in Anchorage and the Mat-Su Valley.

Bloomquist says foreclosure activity is unlikely to stop, but the rate will continue to slow.

“The numbers are headed downward, but they’re still not back to that normal healthy level that we were seeing before the foreclosure crisis hit in 2007,” Bloomquist said.

The report does not look at the overall health of the housing market, including interest rates, home values and vacancies.