Vegas foreclosure filings up nearly 9 percent in quarter

By Steve Green

Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009 | 9:08 a.m.

Another report on residential mortgage foreclosures is out, this one largely confirming previously-reported grim statistics for Nevada.

On Oct. 15, foreclosure-tracker RealtyTrac reported Nevada led the nation in the percentage of housing units receiving foreclosure filings in September and the third quarter.

Today, the Irvine, Calif., firm broke out the numbers by metro area. They show Las Vegas leading the nation in foreclosure filings with one in every 20 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing in the quarter -- well above the national rate of one in every 136 housing units.

The rate for Las Vegas was up 8.82 percent from the second quarter and up 53.6 percent from the third quarter of 2008, RealtyTrac said.

Reno came in at No. 9 on the list, with one in 37 homes receiving a filing in the quarter -- up 14.1 percent from the second quarter and up 80 percent from 2008's third quarter.

The Nevada numbers are related to the state's skyrocketing unemployment rate, which reached 13.3 percent in September.

RealtyTrac said in today's report the national foreclosure crisis has spread to cities not previously considered foreclosure hot spots. Looking at the top 50 metro area foreclosure rates, the biggest year-over-year increases were in Boise, Idaho; Provo-Orem, Utah; and the Salt Lake City area, RealtyTrac said.

"Rising unemployment and a new variety of mortgage resets continued to gradually shift the nation’s foreclosure epicenters in the third quarter away from the hot spots of the last two years and toward some metro areas that had avoided the brunt of the first foreclosure wave," James Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac, said in a statement. "While toxic subprime mortgages drove much of that first wave of foreclosures, high unemployment and exotic (adjustable-rate mortgages) are spreading the foreclosure flood to more metro areas in 2009."