Metro Atlanta foreclosure notices post monthly drop, but gain from last June

Foreclosure notices in metro Atlanta fell in June from May, but rose from the same time a year ago, according to new figures released Monday by Equity Depot.

Advertisements this month for foreclosures in the 13-county metro area dropped 19.6 percent from May, largely because there was an extra week last month for lenders to prepare the ads, the new data shows.

But the 7,669 notices in June represented an increase of 4 percent from June 2011, according to Equity Depot figures.

For the first six months of the year, foreclosure ads totaled 49,423 — a 12.4 percent decline from the same period a year ago, although still a relatively high number.

“There’s still a high percentage of historical repeats, with 65 percent of June notices having run before at some point in time,” Equity Depot President Barry Bramlett wrote in an email to the AJC.

Foreclosures notices do not automatically result in repossessions. Borrowers and lenders sometimes negotiate an agreement that can postpone a pending foreclosure. The June notices cover foreclosures scheduled for the courthouse steps in July.

Among the core metro counties, Gwinnett had the most foreclosure notices with 1,532. Fulton was next with 1,254, followed by DeKalb (1,158), Cobb (883) and Clayton (692).