New foreclosure hotspots emerge
The foreclosure crisis does not appear to be ending so much as shifting location, according to a new report from Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac. Five of the 10 metro areas with the highest overall foreclosure rates reported decreasing foreclosure activity since the third quarter of 2008 in RealtyTrac’s “Q3 2009 Metropolitan Foreclosure Market Report,” but many others in the top 50 cities for foreclosures reported increases.
Among the top 50 metro foreclosure rates, the three biggest year-over-year increases were in Boise City-Nampa, Idaho, and Provo-Orem and Salt Lake City in Utah. In several states, the largest increases were posted in cities not previously a focal point for foreclosure activity. The Chico, Calif., metro area posted the biggest year-over-year increase in that state, with foreclosure activity up 98 percent from the third quarter of 2008. The medium-sized metro about 100 miles north of Sacramento had a 12.8 percent unemployment rate in August, above the state and national averages.
“Rising unemployment and a new variety of mortgage resets continued to gradually shift the nation’s foreclosure epicenters in the third quarter away from the hot spots of the last two years and toward some metro areas that had avoided the brunt of the first foreclosure wave,” said RealtyTrac Chief Executive Officer James Saccacio. “While toxic subprime mortgages drove much of that first wave of foreclosures, high unemployment and exotic Alt-A Option ARMs are spreading the foreclosure flood to more metro areas in 2009.”
Read the entire report and view an interactive map of foreclosure hotspots.
