And The Nation’s Highest Foreclosure Rate in 2007 Goes To …

For all of the attention California and Florida have been getting during the recent housing bust — and rightfully so — the nation’s highest foreclosure rate isn’t in either former housing hotspot. It’s in none other that Detroit, Michigan, which has seen its economy decimated by continuing woes in the U.S. automobile industry.

Detroit registered the highest foreclosure rate among the nation’s 100 largest metro areas during 2007, according to a report released Wednesday, with close to 5 percent of its households entering some stage of foreclosure during the year — 4.8 times the national average, and up from about 3 percent in 2006. A total of 72,616 foreclosure filings on 41,273 properties were reported in the Detroit metro area in 2007, up 68 percent from 2006, according to foreclosure listing service RealtyTrac.

Not that California or Florida, however, were all that far behind. Fifteen of the metro areas with the top 20 metro foreclosure rates were located in just four states: California with six, Ohio with four, Florida with three and Michigan with two.

Overall, the rate of foreclosures nationwide increased nearly 80 percent from 2006 levels, according to RealtyTrac.

“As expected, the number of properties entering some stage of foreclosure in 2007 was up in the vast majority of the nation’s 100 largest metro areas, with 86 metros reporting increases from 2006,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “Most of the metro areas with the highest foreclosure rates were either cities like Stockton and Las Vegas, which experienced meteoric growth and unsustainable price appreciation over the past few years, or cities like Detroit, which are undergoing a more widespread economic downturn along with higher unemployment rates.”

Stockton in particular has been hard hit, with 4.86 percent of its households entering some stage of foreclosure during the year, RealtyTrac said. A total of 22,184 foreclosure filings on 10,608 properties were reported in the metro area in 2007, up 271 percent from 2006.

Other California metros with foreclosure rates in the top 20 were Riverside-San Bernardino at No. 4, Sacramento at No. 5, Bakersfield at No. 7, Fresno at No. 14 and Oakland at No. 16.

Las Vegas posted the third highest metro foreclosure rate among the 100 largest metropolitan areas in 2007, RealtyTrac said, with 4.2 percent of households entering foreclosure in 2007.

For more information, visit http://www.realtytrac.com.