Foreclosures Still Going UP?!

By MIKE BARRIS
Foreclosure filings for April rose 65% on a year-to-year basis and 4% from March, as credit woes and tumbling home values hit homeowners, the foreclosure-listing service RealtyTrac said.

RealtyTrac said there were foreclosure filings on 243,353 properties last month, which Chief Executive James J. Saccacio said was the highest since the firm began issuing its reports in January 2005. "Although only about 2% of households nationwide are in foreclosure, these properties contribute to already bloated inventories of homes for sale, and put downward pressure on home values," he noted.

Areas of California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona "continue to be particularly hard-hit," Mr. Saccacio said, citing Vallejo, Calif.'s bankruptcy filing last week. Vallejo is part of a metropolitan area which had the nation's sixth-highest foreclosure-filing rate in April.

Nevada had the nation's highest state rate last month, with one in every 146 households receiving a filing. Trailing Nevada were California, Arizona, Florida and Colorado.

The highest foreclosure-filing total belonged to California, with 64,683 properties, followed by Florida, Ohio, Arizona and Texas. Merced, Calif., led tracked metropolitan areas in filing rates, trailed by Stockton, Modesto and Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif.; and Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla.

Amid the subprime-mortgage debacle, lenders have tightened standards, making it tougher for individuals to obtain credit. In November, Mr. Saccacio warned that he expected foreclosure activity to "remain high and even increase" through 2008 in many markets, "given the number of loans due to reset through the middle of 2008 and the continuing weakness in home sales."