Home foreclosures spike in Missouri and rise slightly in Kansas

Home foreclosure activity climbed sharply in Missouri in May from a year earlier but was up only slightly in Kansas, a new report said.

The number of default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions in Missouri climbed nearly 40 percent last month from a year earlier, according to the latest monthly survey by the RealtyTrac market research firm based in Irvine, Calif.

Altogether there were 1,574 troubled single-family properties in the state in May, one in every 1,724 homes. Missouri ranked 33rd among all states for foreclosure activity, RealtyTrac said.

Kansas reported a 2.32 percent rise in actions, with 441 properties in distress. That represented one in every 2,802 properties, which ranked Kansas 42nd for foreclosure activity.

Nationwide, foreclosure activity climbed 16 percent in May from a year ago to a 19-month high, RealtyTrac said. The 126,868 foreclosures were up 1 percent from April.

RealtyTrac said the increase in May was largely due to a jump in bank repossessions. Such actions were up 19 percent in Missouri last month and up 61 percent in Kansas.

Conditions in the housing market have been generally positive over the past two years. Still, the foreclosure numbers show that many homeowners remain under stress from the recession.

“Lenders and courts are pushing through stubborn foreclosure cases that have been languishing in foreclosure limbo for years,” said Daren Blomquist, a vice president at RealtyTrac.

This story was originally published June 18, 2015 at 2:00 AM.