Utah cities among top for foreclosures

SALT LAKE CITY — Three of Utah's largest metro areas are among the busiest foreclosure markets in the nation, according to a report released Thursday.

The RealtyTrac first-quarter 2010 Metropolitan Foreclosure Market Report includes Provo-Orem, Salt Lake City and Ogden-Clearfield among the metropolitan statistical areas with the highest rate of foreclosure filings.

The report — which surveyed areas with populations of at least 200,000 people — ranked Provo-Orem 34th, with one in every 76 households receiving a foreclosure filing during the first three months of 2009. Salt Lake City ranked 35th, with one in 77 households registering a filing. And Ogden-Clearfield ranked 53rd, with one in 125 local households receiving a filing.

Based in Irvine, Calif., RealtyTrac publishes a national database of foreclosure and bank-owned properties from approximately 2,500 counties across the country. The company's first-quarter report showed that one in every 138 households in the United States received at least one foreclosure filing — default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions — during the first quarter of 2009.

Among Utah cities, the Salt Lake City metro area experienced the largest year-over-year percentage hike in its foreclosure rate, increasing almost 102 percent compared with the first quarter of 2009. Ogden-Clearfield had a year-over-year jump of just over 60 percent, while Provo-Orem increased nearly 37 percent for the period.

Provo-Orem had 1.31 percent of its housing units receive a filing, followed by Salt Lake City at 1.29 percent and Ogden-Clearfield at 0.80 percent.

Nationally, Las Vegas posted the highest metro foreclosure rate during the first quarter, with one in 28 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing — nearly five times the national average. More than 3.5 percent of Las Vegas housing units received a foreclosure filing during the quarter, an increase of nearly 13 percent from the previous quarter but a decrease of 19 percent from the first quarter of 2009, the report stated.

Modesto, Calif., ranked second, even though foreclosure activity decreased 13 percent from the first quarter of last year, with one in every 34 housing units — 2.93 percent — receiving a foreclosure filing.

With one in every 35 housing units — or 2.82 percent of its households — receiving a foreclosure filing, the Cape Coral-Fort Myers metro area in Florida documented the third highest metro foreclosure rate.

Other cities in the top 10 were Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif., at No. 4; followed by Stockton, Calif.; Merced, Calif.; Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, Ariz.; Vallejo-Fairfield, Calif.; Bakersfield, Calif.; and Orlando-Kissimmee, Fla.