Despite declines in the hardest hit areas, according to the RealtyTrac 2010 Year-End Metropolitan Foreclosure Market Report, foreclosure activity increased from 2009. And the main culprit is continued high unemployment.
Compared to yearend 2009 all metro areas with the 10 highest foreclosure rates posted decreasing foreclosure activity, of which six also posted decreasing foreclosure activity compared to 2008.
RealtyTrac reports that high unemployment drove foreclosure activity up in 72% of the nation’s metro areas, “many of which were relatively insulated from the initial foreclosure tsunami.”
These data show the improvement in the nation’s hardest-hit housing markets is relative.
Foreclosure levels in most of those markets remained five to 10 times higher than historic norms.
The report reiterates that it may get worse before foreclosure rates improve at a significant level since “deep fault lines of risk remain and could potentially trigger more waves of foreclosure activity in 2011 and beyond.”
At yearend California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona cities continued to account for 19 of the top 20 metro foreclosure rates.
Boise City-Nampa, Idaho was the lone exception, ranking 20. Boise also was one of only three metros in the top 20 where foreclosure activity increased from 2009, along with Florida’s Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach and Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater.
At 10.88% the nation’s highest metro foreclosure rate was in Las Vegas-Paradise where one in every 9 housing units received a foreclosure filing in 2010 — nearly five times the national average. A total of 88,198 properties received a foreclosure filing in 2010, a decrease of 7% from 2009 that nonetheless was up 31% compared to yearend 2008.
Improvements in Florida also remain significantly relative.
For example, regardless of decreasing foreclosure activity by 28% and 25% respectively from 2009 and 2008, at 8.40% and a total of 30,660 properties receiving a foreclosure filing in 2010 or one in every 12 housing units--Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla. features the second highest metro foreclosure rate in the country.
The nation’s third highest metro foreclosure rate at 7.34% or one in every 14 housing units was Modesto, Calif.—which also reported a decrease in foreclosure activity from 2009 and 2008.
