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Despite a raft of attempts to stem the tide of foreclosures that have displaced families and battered the housing market, the crisis continues to get worse in Minnesota. There were 13,093 foreclosure sales in the state during the first six months of the year, up 17 percent from the same period last year, according to data released this week by several housing-related groups.

Julie Gugin, executive director of the Minnesota Home Ownership Center, said that because requests for foreclosure counseling over the past six months were on par with last year, she had expected the foreclosure rate to stay the same.

Instead, the number of foreclosures has risen, and even skyrocketed in some counties. In Goodhue County, for example, there was a 138 percent increase. Kandiyohi saw a 128 percent increase. And within the metro area, Sherburne County saw a 34 percent increase.

With 1.64 percent of its houses in foreclosure Sherburne also had the highest foreclosure rate in the state. Statewide the foreclosure rate was 0.73 percent.

The numbers come from the Minnesota Home Ownership Center, Greater Minnesota Housing Fund, Minnesota Housing and the Family Housing Fund, in partnership with HousingLink, which does the research.

Gugin said the St. Paul-based Home Ownership Center is able to help prevent foreclosure for about half the homeowners who receive counseling, but job losses have made it difficult for people to keep current on their mortgages. "There are just more people entering the foreclosure process," she said.

That's particularly true in rural counties, where the population is falling and there are fewer jobs.

Beyond the Twin Cities metro area, the number of foreclosure sales during the first six months of the year increased 24 percent over the same period last year; in the metro area there was a 13 percent increase.

Gugin said the foreclosures damage communities in innumerable ways beyond the real estate market, and that tracking them helps determine where critical resources need to be targeted. Boarded and vacant houses become a blight on neighborhoods, the local tax base declines and cities and counties bear the brunt of maintaining many of those properties.

The data were collected primarily by contacting individual counties and by using sheriff's sale records posted in community newspapers and other publications. The data do not include properties that are still in the foreclosure process.

Jim Buchta • 612-673-7376