Utah ranked 6th in foreclosure rate

SALT LAKE CITY — The good news is that Utah's rate of foreclosures filings during the third quarter of this year fell from the second quarter. The bad news is that the Beehive State still ranked among the top 10 nationally for rate of default filings for the period.

According to RealtyTrac's third quarter/September 2011 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, one in every 145 Utah households registered a foreclosure filing during the three-month period from July to September. The rate was an 18 percent decrease from the previous period and nearly 39 percent lower than the third quarter of 2010.

The report showed foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — increased less than 1 percent from the previous quarter and declined 34 percent from the same period last year. Nationally, the report showed one in every 213 U.S. housing units with a foreclosure filing during the quarter.

“While foreclosure activity in September and the third quarter continued to register well below levels from a year ago, there is evidence that this temporary downward trend is about to change direction, with foreclosure activity slowly beginning to ramp back up,” said James Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “Third-quarter foreclosure activity increased marginally from the previous quarter, breaking a trend of three consecutive quarterly decreases that started in the fourth quarter of 2010.”

Nevada posted the nation's highest foreclosure rate with one in every 44 housing units recording a filing, despite an 11 percent decline from the last quarter and almost a 33 percent year-over-year decrease.

California ranked second with one in 88 households registering a default filing, followed by Arizona, which ranked third at one in 93 units with a filing.

The report showed that foreclosure activity in California climbed nearly 5 percent from the previous three-month period, but fell about 20 percent from last year's third quarter. Arizona dropped 25 percent from the previous quarter and was down nearly 40 percent from the third quarter of 2010.

Georgia and Florida ranked fourth and fifth, respectively, with the Peach State registering one filing for every 121 housing units, followed by the Sunshine State with one in every 130 units recording a filing.

Rounding out the top ten were Utah at No. 6, Michigan at No. 7 (one in 146 housing units), Idaho ranked eighth at one in 157 units, with Illinois at No. 9 (one in 164 units) and Colorado ranked 10th with one in 168 housing units registering a foreclosure filing. 

E-mail: jlee@desnews.com