Nevada, Colorado, California post top foreclosure rates
Nevada posted the nation's highest foreclosure rate, with one foreclosure filing for every 40 households during the first half of 2007. The state reported a total of 25,208 foreclosure filings on 14,687 properties, more than double the number of foreclosure filings reported in the previous six-month period and nearly triple the number reported in the first half of 2006.
Colorado reported one foreclosure filing for every 60 households during the first half of 2007, the nation's second highest state foreclosure rate. The state reported a total of 34,287 foreclosure filings on 19,411 properties, a 15 percent increase from the previous six-month period and a 38 percent increase from the first six months of 2006.
With one foreclosure filing for every 69 households during the first half of 2007, California registered the nation's third highest state foreclosure rate. The state reported a total of 189,560 foreclosure filings on 104,572 properties, up 122 percent from the previous six-month period and up 232 percent from the first half of 2006.
Other states with foreclosure rates among the top 10 included Michigan, Florida, Ohio, Georgia, Arizona, Connecticut and Indiana.
California, Florida, Texas, Ohio document largest foreclosure totals
California's foreclosure filing total and unique property count were both highest among all the states in the first half of 2007. Florida
reported the second highest totals, with 102,213 foreclosure filings on 64,250 properties. Florida's foreclosure rate - one foreclosure filing for every 81 households - ranked fifth highest among all the states.
Texas reported 69,471 foreclosure filings in the first half of 2007 - the nation's third highest foreclosure filing total. But the state's unique
property count of 41,592 came in fourth place behind Ohio's 44,594. Ohio reported 60,728 total foreclosure filings, the fourth most of any state.
Other states with foreclosure filing totals among the nation's 10 highest were Michigan, Georgia, Illinois, Colorado, New Jersey and Arizona.
New "Unique Property" feature provides additional detail
The new "unique property" count is an addition to the RealtyTrac U.S. Foreclosure Market Report and presents the number of unique property
addresses with some type of foreclosure action filed against them during the six-month period. This new metric counts a property only once, even if there were multiple foreclosure filings against the property during the report period. RealtyTrac will issue this count four times a year, including a mid-year and annual report.
"The addition of this metric to our foreclosure report was spurred by a data request for unique property addresses from the Federal Reserve Bank, which is using our data for market and risk analysis, and we believe it will serve as a valuable complement to the total foreclosure filing count that we have been including all along," said Rick Sharga, RealtyTrac's vice president of marketing. "It's interesting to note that the total foreclosure filings and unique property counts reveal almost identical trends on the national level: foreclosure filings are up 39 percent from the previous six months and 56 percent from the first half of 2006; unique property counts are up 32 percent from the previous six months and up 58 percent from the first half of 2006."
The consistency is similar at the state level, where the same five states have the highest numbers of households in foreclosure and foreclosure filings, and the same six states have the highest percentages of both foreclosure filings per household and percentage of households in the foreclosure process. "The bottom line," Sharga noted, "is that no matter how you count - by individual households or by the total number of foreclosure filings - foreclosure activity is up significantly in 2007. We hope that by providing both the total amount of foreclosure activity and the number of households involved, we're providing information that legislators, regulators, lenders, homebuyers and sellers can use to make intelligent and informed decisions."
