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It was the seventh consecutive quarter that foreclosure activity increased, said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac, a real estate data firm in Irvine, Calif.
"Foreclosure activity in the first quarter increased on a year-over-year basis in 46 out of the 50 states and in 90 of the nation's 100 largest metro areas, demonstrating that most regions of the country are seeing more foreclosures," Saccacio said.
Nearly 650,000 U.S. homes received foreclosure filings in the first quarter of 2008, up 112 percent from roughly 307,000 over the first three months of 2007.
On Monday, the California's State Senate passed a bill introduced by Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata that allows fines of up to $1,000 a day for lenders that allow their vacant foreclosed properties to become eyesores.
The measure grew out of a December community forum in Oakland sponsored by California ACORN, a grassroots advocacy and organizing group.
"A lot of people were really fed up with the fact that banks now own homes that are deteriorating," said Ronald Coleman, the group's Sacramento-based campaign and policy director. "There were lots of complaints about vacant houses increasing crime in neighborhoods. That causes homes to lose more value in addition to the value lost from the foreclosure crisis, so that's a very big concern."
RealtyTrac's count of foreclosure filings, which include bank repossessions, default notices and auction sale notices, between January and March represented about one in every 194 U.S. households.
The nation's foreclosure crisis is being driven by homebuyers with shaky credit who took out subprime loans. Many of these borrowers were unable to make the higher mortgage payments after their adjustable-rate loans reset. The ripple effect has caused mortgage companies to fail, forced others to stop providing subprime loans and caused many more to tighten lending standards on all loans.
Also fueling the problem were predatory loans with unreasonable terms and a glut of speculative buyers whose properties depreciated, leaving them unable to sell for quick profits.
With one filing for every 54 households _ 3.6 times the national average _ Nevada had the highest foreclosure rate among all states. California logged the most filings with 169,831.
After Nevada, the top 10 states with the highest foreclosure rates were California, Arizona, Florida, Colorado, Georgia, Michigan, Ohio, Massachusetts and Connecticut.
Metropolitan areas in California had nine of the nation's top 20 metro foreclosure rates, with Stockton and Riverside-San Bernardino topping the list at No. 1 and No. 2.
In Stockton, one in every 30 households received a foreclosure filing. That's 6.6 times the national average. Filings were made on one in 38 homes in the Riverside-San Bernadino area, more than five times the national average.
Other top 20 metro areas in California included: Bakersfield at No. 4; Sacramento at No. 5; San Diego at No. 9; Oakland at No. 10; Fresno at No. 12; Los Angeles at No. 17; and Orange County at No. 19.
Four Florida metro areas also made the top 20, including Fort Lauderdale at No. 8; Orlando at No. 13; Miami at No. 14; and Sarasota/Bradenton/Venice at No. 15.
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(c) 2008, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
Visit the McClatchy Washington Bureau on the World Wide Web at www.mcclatchydc.com.
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GRAPHIC (from MCT Graphics, 202-383-6064): 20080429 FORECLOSURES
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