New Wave of Foreclosures Emerges Outside Sun Belt

While four Sun Belt states still dominate the foreclosure landscape, there is growing evidence of a “new wave of foreclosures” fueled more by unemployment and economic hardship than in past years, according to a U.S. foreclosure update by RealtyTrac.

The 20 cities with the highest foreclosures rates are California (9 out of the top 20); Florida (8); Nevada (2) and Arizona (1), according to the California-based real estate data company’s U.S. Foreclosure Market Report for 2009.

The highest-ranked metro area outside those four states was in Boise City-Nampa, Idaho, – a ranking of No. 24 with 4.66 percent of its housing units receiving at least one foreclosure notice in 2009.

“While it was expected that cities from states with the highest levels of  foreclosure activity would top the charts, there is evidence that we’re  entering a new wave of foreclosures, driven more by unemployment and economic  hardship than what we’ve seen over the past few years,” said James J. Saccacio,  chief executive officer of RealtyTrac.

Saccacio noted areas such as Provo, Utah; Fayetteville,  Ark.; Portland,  Ore.; and Rockford,  Ill., as posting foreclosure rates higher than the U.S. average.

“And markets like Honolulu, Minneapolis and Seattle saw foreclosure activity increase at more than twice the national pace over the  past 12 months — although all three of those markets still had 2009 foreclosure  rates that were at or below the U.S. average,” he said.

Not so surprisingly, Las Vegas posted the nation’s highest metro foreclosure rate for the year, with  more than 12 percent of its housing units receiving a foreclosure notice in  2009 — more than five times the national average.

With 11.87 percent of its housing units getting a foreclosure notice last year, Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., registered the second highest metro foreclosure rate.

The RealtyTrac market report provides the total number of properties with at least one foreclosure filing entered into  the RealtyTrac database during the year for metropolitan statistical areas with  a population of 200,000 or more based on Census bureau estimates.

Click here for the full report.