Tales from the Trenches

Here are the up to date stats for Foreclosures – it’s getting worse in the sunbelt: (Mortgage Loan.com Kirk Havercamp July 31 09)

Sun Belt cities continue to be pummeled by foreclosures, with California and Florida heavily dominating the list of worst-affected communities, according to new data from the foreclosure management tracking firm RealtyTrac.

Rising unemployment is also causing foreclosure rates to begin creeping up in areas where homeowner defaults had not previously been considered a major problem, according to the report, while rates are actually beginning to ease in some Rust Belt cities hard hit by the economic downturn.

Florida and California accounted for 25 of the 30 U.S. cities with the worst foreclosure rates in the first half of 2009, with Nevada and Arizona splitting four of the others. Las Vegas, Nev. had the highest foreclosure rate of all U.S. metro areas, with 7.45 percent of all single-family homes, or one in13, receiving a foreclosure notice in the first six months of the year.

Close behind were Fort Myers, Fla. and Merced, Calif., with rates of 7.20 and 6.89 percent, respectively, or about one in 14 and one in 15 homes. Even so, foreclosure rates in both communities were down slightly compared to the second half of 2008, whereas Las Vegas posted a 22 percent increase.

Foreclosures up nearly 10 percent nationwide

The overall U.S. foreclosure rate was 1.19 percent, or one home in 84. A total of 1.5 million U.S. homes reportedly received foreclosure notices in the first half of the year, representing a 9.5 percent increase over the last six months of 2008.

Above-average levels of foreclosures were reported in a number of states where homeowner defaults had previously remained low, suggesting that rising unemployment was beginning to show up as a factor in markets like Provo, Utah and Boise, Idaho, which posted increases in excess of 60 percent and 45 percent, respectively, compared to the previous six months. Oregon, Arkansas, Illinois and South Carolina also saw areas of sharp increases.

Signs of improvement in the Rust Belt

At the same time, signs of improvement were seen in hard-hit old industrial cities in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana where layoffs and unemployment continue to be a serious problem. Foreclosures in Detroit, Mich., which topped the RealtyTrac foreclosure list in 2006 and 2007, was down 8 percent in the first six months of 2009, following a 16 percent drop in the second half of last year; the city presently has the 38-highest foreclosure rate in the nation.

Cleveland, Ohio with the nation’s six-worst foreclosure rate in 2007, decreased 11 percent from the previous six months and 30 percent from the first half of 2008, dropping it out of the top 50 for the first half of 2009. Six-month declines were also posted by Flint, Mich.; Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, Ind.; and Toledo and Akron, Ohio.

The survey tracks foreclosure rates in U.S. metropolitan areas of 200,000 or more, counting households that receive one or more foreclosure filings during the reporting period as a single event.