Report: California leads nation in foreclosures

FAIR OAKS
January 8, 2007 7:28am

California was one of the hardest-hit states by foreclosures in 2006, leading the nation in the number of foreclosure actions, according to a report Monday by a Fair Oaks company that tracks the industry.

California topped the nation with 157,417 foreclosure filings, up 94.3 percent over 2005’s 81,012 filings, according to Foreclosures.com.

Colorado, with 68,310 foreclosure filings, was up 55.4 percent over 2005’s 43,951, the company says.

Texas had 106,845 foreclosure filings in 2006, up 35.2 percent over 2005’s 79,001.

One out of nearly every 2.2 foreclosures in the United States happened in the Southwestern states, according to Foreclosures.com.

Nationwide, nearly one million (970,948) foreclosure filings were reported for the year, up more than 51 percent from just over 641,000 in 2005, according to ForeclosureS.com’s internally compiled numbers. The company does not reveal its data methodology.

“Home inventories now are dropping and markets are improving,” says Alexis McGee, president of ForeclosureS.com. “That means relief to overextended homeowners who bought homes they couldn’t afford with the help of little money down and low teaser-rate mortgages.”

Saying it might by indicative of better times ahead, Foreclosures.com says four states in the Southwest -- Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Oregon -- saw a drop in fourth-quarter over third-quarter foreclosures filings.

“Although it’s impossible to know exactly when we hit the bottom on the price correction, I firmly believe that when the market heats up again this spring, we’ll look back at this winter season as our best buying opportunity in six years,” says Ms. McGee.