Most city foreclosure rates are up

IRVINE, Calif., July 29 (UPI) -- Online property marketplace RealtyTrac said that three-quarters of major U.S. cities in a survey experienced year-over-year increases in foreclosure rates.

The firm's Midyear 2010 Metropolitan Foreclosure Market Report said 154 out of 206 cities studied posted year-to-year increases, RealtyTrac said in a statement.

Of the 10 cities with the highest foreclosure rates, nine of them bucked the trend, with rates falling, the report found. RealtyTrac also said the top 20 highest foreclosure rates were concentrated in four states, Florida, California, Nevada and Arizona.

"The fragile stability achieved in many local housing markets hinges on improvements in the underlying economy, specifically job growth," said RealtyTrac Chief Executive Officer James Saccacio.

From January through June, Las Vegas topped the list with the nation's highest foreclosure rate with 6.6 percent of its homes falling into foreclosure.

Foreclosure rates in Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., dropped 22 percent in the first half of the year compared to the second half of 2009, but the city's rate was still the nation's second highest, the report said.

In total, there were 1,654,634 U.S. homes involved in a foreclosure in the first half of the year, 1.28 percent of all homes, which is 5.14 percent lower than the second half of 2009.