"We've seen some ups and downs in quarters, but it's not like some other states where every quarter is consistently an increase starting in the first quarter of '06," he said. "The trend now is that foreclosures are, at least right now, pretty much in check in most of Utah. We will see if the first quarter of 2008 will bear that out, but we're not seeing a consistent upward trend line."

As bad as the February foreclosure number were in Utah, other states had larger increases. Missouri, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Vermont and Wyoming had higher month-to-month increases, while 22 states' year-to-year increases topped Utah's 51.89 percent rise.

Some states, however, had very low figures on which to base their increases. Vermont, for example, saw a 300 percent rise because it saw total foreclosures in the state rise from one to four in both the month-over-month and year-over-year categories.

Utah's neighbors did not fare well. Nevada, California, Arizona and Colorado were among the top five states with the highest foreclosure rates.

The top foreclosure rates in February were in Nevada, California, Florida, Arizona and Colorado — the same order as in February. The lowest rates were in Vermont, West Virginia, North Dakota, South Dakota and Mississippi.

In Nevada, one in every 165 homes received a foreclosure filing. In Vermont, the figure was one in every 76,836 homes.

California led all states in total foreclosures, with 53,629. That was down 6 percent from January but up 131 percent from February 2007.

James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac, said the national 4 percent monthly decrease in February was similar to the 6 percent monthly decrease in February 2007.

"However, the year-over-year increase of 60 percent this February was significantly higher than the 19 percent year-over-year increase in February 2007, indicating we have still not reached the peak of foreclosure activity in this cycle," he said.

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E-mail: bwallace@desnews.com