Foreclosure rates are not as bad in Twin Cities as elsewhere, survey says

Twin Cities ranks 60th in metro area foreclosure rates

By TIM HARLOW, Star Tribune

Last update: February 13, 2008 - 10:18 AM

The number of foreclosures on residential properties across the United States has risen exponentially in the past year, but the problem has not been as bad in the Twin Cities as in other major metropolitan areas, according to figures released today by RealtyTrac, a mortgage research company that markets foreclosed properties online.

According to the company's Year-End 2007 Metropolitan Foreclosure Report, Minneapolis-St. Paul came in at No. 60 in a survey of the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas. The survey said 12,755 foreclosure filings on 10,798 properties were reported in 2007. About .83 percent of Twin Cities area households were engaged in some stage of the foreclosure process during the year.

A survey conducted earlier in 2007 had ranked the Twin Cities at No. 69.

Overall, the mortgage tracking company said foreclosures nationwide rose 75 percent in 2007. More than 2.2 million foreclosure filings on 1.285 million properties were filed. That is an average of 1.03 percent of all households entering some stage of foreclosure, Realtytrac.com said.

Detroit had the highest rate of foreclosures in the United States with nearly 5 percent of households entering the foreclosure process. More than 72,600 foreclosure filings on 41,273 properties were reported in 2007, RealtyTrac said.

The Motor City was closely followed by Stockton, Calif. with 4.86 percent of households in foreclosure. Las Vegas came in at No. 3 with Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif. at No. 4 and Sacramento, Calif at No. 5. The rest of the top 10 includes Cleveland at No. 6 followed by Bakersfield, Calif., Miami, Denver and Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Las Vegas was extremely hard-hit with seven of the top 100 worst hit zip codes in or around the nation's gaming capital, according to figures compiled in December by RealtyTrac for CNNMoney.com. Zip code 89031 in North Las Vegas had the most foreclosings with 741. That total includes default notices, auction notices and bank repossessions.

No Minnesota zip codes appeared on the top 100 list.

"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."

In the Upper Midwest, Lake County, Ill.-Kenosha County-Wis. came in at No. 32, Milwaukee-Waukesha ranked No. 49.

Fifteen of the metro areas with the top 20 foreclosure rates were located in four states, California with six, Ohio with four, Florida with three and Michigan with two.

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