Oklahoma’s bad loan rate falls 25 percent, while the national figure drops 6 percent

Last month 877 foreclosures were filed, down 25.5 percent from April and down 29 percent from May 2008, according to a report from real estate data service RealtyTrac.

Oklahoma’s foreclosure rate of one for every 1,851 home loans was good enough for the state to drop from the 34th highest rate in April to the 39th in May.

Margo Mitchell, executive director of the nonprofit Consumer Credit Counseling Service in Tulsa, said the reduction in foreclosures was overdue good news.

“It’s good for people who are trying to keep their homes, and good for all of us who live around them,” she said.

Mitchell said part of the reason for the drop may be the increased willingness of mortgage companies to help those who are having trouble keeping up with payments.

However, the reduction in RealtyTrac’s numbers hasn’t yet translated into a reduction of Mitchell’s workload.

“We’re still doing 80 foreclosure counseling sessions a month, so we haven’t seen the drop here yet,” she said.

Nationally, foreclosure filings fell 6 percent in May from April, according to RealtyTrac. More than 321,000 households received at least one foreclosure- related notice last month — 18 percent more than a year earlier.

James J. Saccacio, CEO of Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac, said in a news release that the volume of national foreclosures was the third-highest on record.

While defaults and scheduled foreclosure auctions were both down from the previous month, bank repossessions were up 2 percent, thanks largely to substantial increases in several states, including Michigan, Arizona, Washington, Nevada, Oregon and New York, he said.

Nevada once again had the highest foreclosure rate in the nation, with one of every 64 homes facing foreclosure. Following Nevada were California, Florida, Arizona and Utah.