Utah fifth in nation for foreclosures

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah is fifth-worst in the nation for home foreclosures, and the trend of families losing their homes is likely to continue, according to a report released Thursday by RealtyTrac Inc., a foreclosure listing service.

In Salt Lake County alone, almost 8,000 foreclosures are pending, although only 2,360 homes are listed for sale. Other areas hit hard by the foreclosure crisis include Uintah, Summit, Wasatch and Washington counties, according to the report.

Statewide, about 18,000 properties took initial steps down the foreclosure path in the first half of this year. That amounts to about 2 percent of all homes.

Nationally, more than 1 million households are likely to lose their homes to foreclosure in 2010 as lenders work their way through a huge backlog of borrowers who have fallen behind on their loans.

Nearly 528,000 U.S. homes were taken over by lenders in the first six months of the year, a rate that is on track to eclipse the more than 900,000 homes repossessed in 2009, according to the RealtyTrac data.

"That would be unprecedented," said Rick Sharga, a senior vice president at the company.

By comparison, lenders have historically taken over about 100,000 homes a year, Sharga said.

The surge in home repossessions reflects the dynamic of a foreclosure crisis that has shown signs of leveling off in recent months, but remains a crippling drag on the housing market.

The pace at which new homes are falling behind in payments and entering the foreclosure process has slowed as banks continue to let delinquent borrowers stay longer in their homes rather than adding to the glut of foreclosed properties on the market. At the same time, lenders have stepped up repossessions in an effort to clear out the backlog of distressed inventory on their books.

The number of households facing foreclosure in the first half of the year climbed 8 percent compared to the same period last year, but dropped 5 percent compared to the last six months of 2009, according to RealtyTrac, which tracks notices for defaults, scheduled home auctions and home repossessions.

In all, about 1.7 million homeowners received a foreclosure-related warning between January and June. That translates to one in 78 U.S. homes.

Foreclosure notices posted monthly declines in April, May and June, but Sharga said one shouldn't read too much into that.