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Top Real Estate Foreclosure States
from:In the first quarter of 2008, RealtyTrac listed Nevada as the state with highest rate of foreclosures. It was 3.6 times the national average and became #1 of top real estates foreclosure states. The runner up, not surprisingly, was California. Foreclosure rates continue to climb at 32% from the previous quarter and show no signs of leveling out. Arizona was next with an increase of 45% from the previous quarter but with far fewer filings based on numbers alone when compared to California. There were 169,831 filings in California when compared to Arizona's 27,404. Florida and Colorado remain in the top real estate foreclosure states, still in the top five.
Why These States?
There are a lot of reasons why these particular markets continue to show up as the top real estate foreclosure states in the United States. The housing bubbles in these areas and speculation from investors drove prices so high that after the bubble burst, the housing depreciation left many homeowners who bought high owing much more than what their home is worth now. Seeing this sad state of affairs, homeowners decided it was far better to return the keys to the lender than to try to keep up a mortgage that was a losing investment. Add to that the problems with the loss of jobs in these states when the bubble burst and that was a perfect recipe for a mortgage meltdown.
Previously Hot Inner City Markets
During the time when people were buying into a high real estate market, they mostly picked large cities where they felt prices would continue to increase and the jobs were plentiful. So, the cities most affected were: Las Vegas, Detroit, Miami, Atlanta, and Los Angeles. House builders began to provide more and more housing in this area, building it up, to a point where, when the bubble burst, the inventory far outlasted the number of new buyers. Now, you can go into neighborhoods in these top real estate foreclosure states and see row after row of abandoned and foreclosed homes for sale.
Keep An Eye On Inventory And Foreclosure Rate
The turn-around in these top real estate foreclosure states will happen when the inventory of homes begins to decrease as the foreclosure rate declines too. Until then, either one or the other make the top real estate foreclosure states a buyer's market at deep discounts to some of the previous prices that homes were going for before the bubble burst. Some experts suggest it will be many years before the inventory drops sufficiently to signal a turn-around in the top real estate foreclosure states.