Utah cities rank high in foreclosures

SALT LAKE CITY — The Beehive State was stung by the foreclosure bug in a big way in 2009, according to a report released Wednesday.

Three of Utah's largest metro areas were among the top 100 hardest-hit metropolitan statistical areas with populations of at least 200,000 included in the RealtyTrac Year-End 2009 Metropolitan Foreclosure Market Report.

Provo-Orem ranked 30th with nearly 4.11 percent households, or one in every 24, recording a foreclosure filing during 2009. Salt Lake City ranked 43rd at nearly 3 percent, or one in every 34 households, receiving a filing last year.

The report stated the Ogden-Clearfield area had one in every 39 households, or 2.53 percent of housing units, recording a filing. It was ranked 52nd nationwide.

And while it did not qualify for inclusion in this report due to its smaller population, the St. George metro area had the highest foreclosure rate in the state, with 6.42 percent of housing units, or one in every 16 households, recording a filing last year.

RealtyTrac, based in Irvine, Calif., publishes a national database of foreclosure and bank-owned properties from approximately 2,500 counties across the country. Its Wednesday report showed that one in every 45 households in the United States received at least one foreclosure filing — default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions — during 2009.

California accounted for nine of the top 20 metro foreclosure rates in the report. It was followed by Florida with eight, Nevada with two and Arizona with one. The highest-ranked metro area outside of those four states was in Boise City-Nampa, Idaho, which ranked 24th, 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," James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac, said in a prepared statement.

"Areas like Provo, Utah; Fayetteville, Ark.; Portland, Ore.; and Rockford, Ill., all posted foreclosure rates above the U.S. average in 2009," he added. "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."