Foreclosure rankings for cities

Three metropolitan areas in Colorado ended last year with higher foreclosure rates than the national average, shows a report released today by RealtyTrac.

The worst-performing city in Colorado was Greeley, which ranked 21st of 206 metropolitan areas tracked by the Irvine, Ca.-based company. In Greeley, 4.68 percent of all of the housing units were in some stage of foreclosure, compared with a national average of 2.68 percent. The Denver-Aurora area and Colorado Springs also had a higher percentage of homes in some stage of foreclosure than the national average. Fort Collins-Loveland and Boulder did better than the national average, based on the percentage of homes in foreclosure. Boulder was ranked No. 127.

The worst got better

RealtyTrac found that the metro areas with the 10 highest foreclosure rates all posted decreasing foreclosure activity in 2010 from 2009 and six of the top 10 also posted decreasing foreclosure activity from 2008.

California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona cities accounted for 19 of the top 20 metro foreclosure rates, with Boise City-Nampa, Idaho the lone exception at No. 20. Boise also was one of only three metros in the top 20 where foreclosure activity increased from 2009, along with the Florida metro areas of Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach at No. 13 and Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater at No. 17.

“Foreclosure floodwaters receded somewhat in 2010 in the nation’s hardest-hit housing markets,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “Even so, foreclosure levels remained five to 10 times higher than historic norms in most of those hard-hit markets, where deep faultlines of risk remain and could potentially trigger more waves of foreclosure activity in 2011 and beyond. Meanwhile foreclosures became more widespread in 2010 as high unemployment drove activity up in 72 percent of the nation’s metro areas — many of which were relatively insulated from the initial foreclosure tsunami.”

Las Vegas-Paradise continued to post the nation’s highest metro foreclosure rate, with one in everyinen9 housing units (10.88 percent) receiving a foreclosure filing in 2010 — nearly five times the national average. A total of 88,198 Las Vegas-area properties received a foreclosure filing in 2010, a decrease of 7 percent from 2009 but still up 31 percent from 2008.

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