St. Louis ranks 36th among metro areas in foreclosures
The Detroit area, hit hard by the double-whammy of unemployment and a slumping housing market, had the highest foreclosure rate in the nation last year, with several cities in California ranked close behind, an analysis of foreclosure activity in the nation’s largest 100 metropolitan areas shows.
Some 4.9 percent of the households in the Detroit metro area were in some stage of foreclosure last year — 4.8 times the national average, according to the study released Wednesday by mortgage research company RealtyTrac Inc.
St. Louis ranked 36th on the list, but its foreclosure rate of 1.28 percent was below the average of 1.38 percent for the 100 metro regions. The national average is 1.03 percent.
St. Louis had 19,084 total foreclosure filings on 15,444 properties last year.
Stockton, Calif., ranked second with about 4.8 percent of its households in some stage of foreclosure, while the Las Vegas metro area was third with a 4.2 percent rate online payday loan.
RealtyTrac, based in Irvine, Calif., determines the ranking by comparing the number of households in a metro area with the number of foreclosure filings, which include notices of default, auction sale notices or bank repossessions.
Michigan has been in a long economic downturn and has led the nation in unemployment, a combination that has caused many homeowners to fall behind on mortgage payments.
In California, where house values more than tripled since 1995, plunging house prices and tighter lending standards chilled the market, leaving many financially strapped homeowners — some facing steep payment hikes from mortgage rate resets — with few options.