A decline in foreclosures?

Last month the number of foreclosure deeds recorded declined 29% and orders of notice declined 23% when compared with October 2009, making October the first month in 2010 that both those document categories saw a decline in the same month. That trend continued through the first half of November, with foreclosure deeds dropping 26% and orders of notice down 63% from the same two weeks last year.

Today, the New York Times reports that the number of mortgages that are "seriously delinquent" (i.e., more than three months behind) fell from 14.4% of all mortgages in the second quarter to 13.5% in the third quarter (July-August-September). This newspaper report tends to corroborate what we're seeing, but since this decline has been characterized by many up and down blips on the statistical meter, it's still too early to make any long-range predictions; still, it's a good sign.