Search foreclosures by state using reputable websites if you are looking for foreclosed properties to buy or if you are just making your research on residential foreclosures.

Among the most reputable websites offering details on available foreclosed houses for sale by state are the websites of federal agencies that are providing home loans like the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Veterans Affairs and the agencies that are providing home loan guarantees such as the Federal Housing Administration and the Federal Housing Finance Agency that regulates Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and 12 federal home mortgage banks.

In addition to these government sites, you can search the sites of foreclosure research firms that are being quoted by newspapers and journalists. These sites offer charts that show the states with the biggest numbers of mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures.

There are also a lot of sites that provide updated foreclosure listings by state or by city for a fee. These paid sites offer information more detailed and more current than other providers because they operate as a business and they have personnel that track foreclosures by state.

In a foreclosure report released by a California real estate research firm last year for November, it was shown that California again topped all other states in number of default and foreclosure filings, with nearly 74,000 of its residential units put into the foreclosure process. Florida was second with almost 53,000 foreclosure postings and Illinois was third with more than 16,000 filings. Together with fourth-placer Michigan, which posted a total of 15,988 filings, these four states accounted for more than half of the nationwide foreclosure total of almost 307,000.

Using the pace of foreclosure activity as basis for comparing state foreclosures, Nevada, Florida and California were the ones which topped the charts in November. The pace of foreclosure activity was measured by comparing the number of foreclosure filings in the states to their total number of residential units.

So, if you are looking for lower-priced foreclosure properties, your search would be more successful in these foreclosure-hit states. According to analysts, although these states were battered or are still being clobbered by foreclosures, they also have great potentials for recovery because they are still attracting local and international buyers.

One of the four states – Florida – topped a recent survey of brokers who were interviewed about the states favored by international investors asking for foreclosures by state.

The listings of foreclosed homes in several cities in Minnesota continued to grow unabated, resulting to more problems for the local governments, including falling home prices and values. Now, adding to the miseries brought about by the rising foreclosure rate is the abandoned houses becoming eyesores and health hazards for neighborhoods.

The Minnesota cities of Burnsville and Lakeville do not have the manpower needed to attend to abandoned houses. And as the flood of foreclosures remained unabated, more and more abandoned homes have become eyesores and blights in neighborhoods.

The worsening economic downturn has taken its toll on the finances of Dakota County and local government offices. They were forced to make some budget cuts, including streamlining the number of their staff. That is why they are unprepared to take on the role of caretaker for the growing number of foreclosure properties in their neighborhoods.

Industry experts said that the caring for abandoned, foreclosed properties is not profitable. In fact, the cities have to dig into their budgets to pay for the cost of preventing foreclosure houses from becoming eyesores in communities.

Burnsville property inspector Ron Anderson said that he is overwhelmed by the drastic increase in the number of foreclosure houses in the area. Early this year, the government of Burnsville issued an ordinance that required city home inspectors to handle all issues associated with foreclosure properties. The city promised to reimburse the costs of caring for the foreclosure houses by way of special assessments on the properties.
However, budget cuts forced the city to reduce the number of its staff, from two full-time employees to one inspector. And this resulted to an overwhelming workload. The same is true in Lakeville which currently employs one inspector.

According to industry experts, Lakeville has been relying on a monthly listings of foreclosed homes sales from the Dakota County Community Development Agency to keep abreast of foreclosure properties in the city.
Dakota County has been holding sheriff’s sales of all foreclosed properties. As of September, the county posted 1,349 properties on sheriff’s sales. In 2008, the total sheriff’s sales was 2,063, with the cities of Lakeville, Burnsville, Apple Valley and Eagan holding 300 foreclosures.

Generally, it is the responsibility of mortgage holders to take care of properties they have foreclosed on. However, the issue was muddled by the redemption period of six months in which time homeowners have the chance to recover their properties from listings of foreclosed homes.

Home foreclosure listing in the Washington area more than doubled over the past year due to the increase in foreclosures in areas populated by minorities. According to the nonprofit Urban Institute, the possibility is high that minority borrowers took out subprime loans during the boom.

The institute also reported that around 2.7 percent of all mortgage borrowers in the area are in foreclosure, slightly below the 2.9 nationwide average foreclosure percentage, but up from the June 2008 percentage of around 1.4 percent and the June 2007 percentage of around 0.5 percent.

Kathy Pettit, head researcher for the institute report, said that housing analysts were surprised at the increase because the Washington, D.C. area has one of the best economies in the U.S. and one of the lowest in level of subprime lending.

Among counties in the region, the highest rates of properties entering home foreclosure listing are in Prince George’s, where more than 5 percent of all borrowers are facing foreclosure and in Prince William and in Charles, where nearly 4 percent are in foreclosure. These counties have areas where there are a lot of minority homeowners who most probably took out subprime loans.

The problem of foreclosures has not hit the Washington, D.C. area as badly as other foreclosure-battered areas like Nevada, Arizona and Florida, especially at the start of the housing crisis, but the pace of foreclosures has been rising in the capital region.

The number of prime borrowers who previously were not at risk of foreclosures but are now facing financial difficulties is rising, putting more homeowners nearer to default and foreclosure.

Loan modifications for distressed borrowers have been stepped up by lenders because of pressure from federal agencies, but many borrowers could not avail of the offered options because of unemployment.

According to the institute report, 15 percent of all borrowers who defaulted in 2004 never recovered and eventually lost their homes to foreclosure. In 2007, the percentage soared to 47 percent and another 34 percent were sold in distressed sales within 12 months of the default date.

Foreclosures in the area are expected to rise in the next several months because over 8 percent of the mortgages in the area were in default as of June this year, an increase of 6 percent from last year. Based on the report, the high number of mortgages seriously in default could put another 44,000 houses into home foreclosure listing in the Washington, D.C. area in the next several months.

The list of foreclosed homes in Utah declined in October compared to September, but the level of foreclosures in the state is still high, based on a report released this week by a real estate research firm.
Additionally, foreclosure filings across Utah increased by almost 33 percent compared to filings in October last year, much higher than the nationwide increase rate of 19 percent. Analysts cited unemployment as the major reason for the increase in foreclosures.

Over 2,400 residential units in Utah were notified of foreclosure actions in October, representing one out of every 385 units. Nationwide, over 332,000 housing units were hit with foreclosure filings.

According to foreclosure researchers, the drop in foreclosure actions in Utah and in many other states in October compared to September was largely due to the intensified efforts of lenders to modify distressed mortgage loans to be able to comply with federal mandates.

There are also a lot of lenders holding back on their foreclosure actions on defaulting borrowers because they do not want to incur maintenance costs and other costs such as insurance premiums and property taxes.
In Utah, lenders repossessed 761 residential units and added them to their list of foreclosed homes. Nationwide, lenders took back over 77,000 units.

For the 34th consecutive month, Nevada topped the foreclosure rate chart for all states. California, Florida and Arizona were still in the top four, followed by Idaho, Illinois, Michigan and Georgia. Completing the top ten were Maryland and Utah.

Utah however improved its monthly rate change to 34.7 percent, much better than the nationwide rate of 3 percent.

Among metro areas, the Las Vegas area had the highest foreclosure rate in October. One out of every 68 houses in the city got hit with a foreclosure action, more than 5 times the nationwide average foreclosure rate. California cities dominated the top-ten list, with Vallejo and Modesto second and third in ranking and five other California cities in the list.

Housing analysts said that despite the declines, foreclosures remain at their high levels. Many of them even expect more foreclosures in the coming months because of the scheduled resetting of flexible rate mortgage loans, the rising number of foreclosures in high-cost neighborhoods and the continued rise in unemployment rates.

Additionally, since September, only around 1,700 loan modifications out of 650,000 trial loan modifications were made permanent and given much better chances to avoid list of foreclosed homes.

Great home buying opportunities exist in foreclosure home listing in Minnesota as home prices continue to fall throughout the state.

In addition to a greatly improved home affordability, the unemployment rate in Minnesota is also improving, giving better profit and employment prospects for investors and home buyers.

In September, the state unemployment rate dropped to 7.3 percent, as the national jobless rate rose to 9.8 percent. The Minnesota Employment and Economic Development Department reported that around 15,000 more residents got jobs in September, although 7,900 workers lost their jobs during the month.

Home prices in Minnesota, particularly in the Twin Cities of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, have been falling because of the continued rise in foreclosures. According to realtors in the state, many houses for sale are down to their price levels in 2000.

As reported recently by a foreclosure monitoring firm, the pace of foreclosures in Minnesota increased by over 16 percent in the July to September quarter, compared to the previous period. The foreclosure rate of one out of every 217 homes put Minnesota 18th in a ranking of U.S. states based on foreclosure growth rates.

A total of 10,620 default and foreclosure notices were filed, with more than 5,000 residential units posted in foreclosure home listing. Compared to the same three-month period last year, the foreclosure pace this year in Minnesota rose by more than 100 percent.

According to local realtors, house sales have been rising in Saint Paul and Minneapolis because of sharply reduced prices. Other factors are lower mortgage rates and the efforts of first time homebuyers to beat the expiration of the federal tax credit.

The realtors also reported that almost 50 percent of home sales in recent weeks in Saint Paul and Minnesota are foreclosures and short sales. The prediction that more residential properties will enter the market has been welcomed by prospective home buyers, but has been causing concerns in the housing sector. Analysts have predicted that house prices in Saint Paul and Minneapolis will fall further by more than 15 percent.

The cities of Duluth and Rochester have also been enduring price declines, but at a slower rate than the Twin Cities. House prices in both cities have been declining by more than 6 percent, although Rochester is holding up more strongly, with its foreclosure home listing still filled with a lot of affordable residential units.

The West Valley Art Museum in Surprise, Illinois is on the list of foreclosed properties. The art museum, which will celebrate its 30th anniversary, will be put on the foreclosure auction block unless it could settle its overdue loan payment amounting to $500,000.

The lender decided to start foreclosure proceedings against the art museum after it missed several months of loan payments. In June, the art museum temporarily closed its operation to give way to a re-organization, according to officials. They said that the museum is contemplating a sale to avoid a foreclosure sale.

Industry experts said that museum officials are planning to take out the building from the list of foreclosed properties by selling it before the auction. They said that museum officials are confident that they could handle all the financial issues, adding that the planned sale would allow them to reorganize and reopen in the near future.

The 17,000 square feet art museum building is currently valued at about $3.2 million. It has a tag price of $2.4 million. Museum officials said that their immediate task is to raise about $20,000 to pay for the cost of packing and moving all the collection in the museum to a storage location.

The 4,000 pieces collection of the museum is valued at about $3 million. The collection, which is placed in a humidity and temperature-controlled room in the building, is under a public trust and could not be sold.

The city government has offered to relocate the art museum in a building that formerly houses the Heard Museum West which was closed last year due to financial problems. City Mayor Lyn Truitt said that if the West Valley museum makes the move, it would considerably reduce its overhead cost. However, the plan is on hold as the museum does not have enough money to make the move.

According to industry experts, the art museum has been trying to prevent its being placed on a list of foreclosed properties by applying for grants and increasing its solicitation efforts. However, the response on the museum’s fund raising campaign has been lukewarm. The museum has been suffering from the continuing recession, experiencing a decline in membership renewals, program attendance and facility rentals.

Michigan foreclosure listings have been growing faster in the suburbs than in the centers of metro areas, based on an analysis of nearly four years of metropolitan area foreclosures.

The suburban cities of Hazel Park, Pontiac and Eastpointe all had higher foreclosure rates than Detroit. Most suburban residents work in Detroit and most suburban enterprises support industrial businesses located in Detroit, so whatever happens to Detroit directly affects the suburban areas.

If foreclosures are analyzed by zip codes, the zip code 48205 in Detroit had the highest rate of foreclosure – one in every 5.2 housing units.

But if city foreclosures are compared, Hazel Park had the highest rate, with one in every 8.2 housing units getting notified of foreclosure. Second highest was Eastpointe, with one in every 8.3 housing units and third was Pontiac, with a foreclosure rate of one in 9.2.

Detroit was fourth in the ranking of foreclosure rates, with one in every 9.3 homes notified of foreclosure. But Detroit had the largest number of bank-owned homes in Michigan foreclosure listings, totaling 37,727 units for the period January 2006 to August this year.

The average rate of foreclosure in the metropolitan area was one in every 15.5 housing units.

In Hazel Park, where one in every 8.2 residential units has been repossessed during the period from January 2006 to August 2009, for-sale signs abound. City manager Ed Klobucher said his city had the highest rate of foreclosure because his area took out the biggest number of subprime loans.

Earlier this year, Detroit received a funding of $1.6 million from the Neighborhood Stabilization Program to finance initiatives that will prevent vacant foreclosures from causing blight and that will convert properties into useful assets. The money will also be used to demolish abandoned properties that can no longer be rehabilitated.

Other Detroit area communities with high foreclosure rates were Birmingham, with one in every 20.8 houses getting foreclosed; Dearborn Heights, with one in every 13.2 residential units in foreclosure and Washington Township, with one in every 12.7 units getting foreclosed.

The zip code with the biggest rate of foreclosure – zip code 48205 – had once been among Detroit’s strongest neighborhoods. Its housing units were mostly three-bedroom bungalows, with many city employees living in the area.

But now houses, which are mostly foreclosed, are being sold at low prices, ranging from $50 to $49,000.

Georgia foreclosure listings continue to grow as delinquent residential construction loans continue to worsen, based on statements issued by financial analysts concerning the third-quarter performance of Georgia banks.

The analysts said that the bank financial statements, which will be released in the coming weeks, are expected by many to show continued banking difficulties because of delinquent housing construction loans and commercial loans. They added that more Georgia banks will fail in the months ahead.

Many Georgia banks have been taking aggressive actions to resolve their toxic residential property loans, but they have not been totally successful in rising from their losses, according to the analysts.

Jefferson Harralson, head of Keefe, Bruyette and Woods Inc., said that Georgia banks will face more difficulties as federal and state regulators force them to resolve issues in their commercial property loan portfolios. He added that residential construction losses are substantial, but projected losses from toxic commercial loans are even more staggering.

Harralson also said that banks in Georgia will continue to trail national average profitability levels in the third quarter and that 40 percent of banks throughout the country will show significant losses in the third quarter, an increase from the previous 34 percent, based on data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

As 3 out of 5 banks in Georgia suffered big losses in the second quarter, more residential and commercial properties are entering Georgia foreclosure listings. The foreclosure rate will rise further as banks show bigger loan losses in the third quarter.

Since August last year, Georgia has already lost 24 banks, including 19 bank failures this year. The main causes are substantial losses from housing construction loans and lack of funds to cover them.

Synovus Financial Corp. and SunTrust Banks Inc., the two biggest banks in Georgia, will release their reports this week.

In September, James Wells III, chairman and CEO of SunTrust, said his bank expects more losses in its residential property loan portfolio because of falling property values. He added however that his bank’s commercial property loans are performing well compared to those of other commercial banks.

Synovus is expected to lose 57 cents per share while SunTrust is expected to lose 42 cents per share, based on a report from Morgan Keegan.

The ratio of problem loans increased to 7.4 percent in the second quarter, and this ratio is expected to increase further in the third quarter.

Illinois foreclosure listings are still growing, putting the state tenth in a ranking of state foreclosure rates in the July to September quarter as unemployment in the state continued to rise.

According to a foreclosure tracking firm, a total of 37,270 residential units in Illinois were notified of foreclosures in the July to September period. Nearly 19,000 of these units received lis pendens notices while more than 9,700 units were already counted as real estate owned properties.

With a foreclosure rate of one in 141, Illinois ranked tenth in a ranking of states based on foreclosure rates. Foreclosure activity throughout the state stepped up by nearly 14 percent from the previous quarter and by more than 30 percent from last year’s third quarter.

In Illinois, the sharpest increase in foreclosure filings in the July to September period occurred in the Tri-Cities region, where foreclosure filings soared by a staggering 91 percent from the same quarter in 2008. A total of 511 houses were foreclosed in the neighborhoods of Tri-Cities, Maple Park, Elburn, North Aurora and South Elgin.

Communities in Saint Charles posted the highest level of foreclosures, compared to other neighborhoods. The other communities with increased foreclosure activity were South Elgin, North Aurora and Geneva.

According to housing analysts, the number of houses in Illinois foreclosure listings increased in the third quarter because of a sharp rise in foreclosures that entered the market in July. During this month, lenders completed their foreclosure actions which were delayed by a state law prohibiting lenders from filing foreclosure actions within 30 days after homeowners become in default by 30 days.

They also said that foreclosure postings may continue to increase as lenders pursue foreclosure actions which were hindered by moratoriums and loan modifications.

In September, the unemployment rate in Illinois climbed up to 10.5 percent, compared to 10 percent in August, based on data from the Illinois Department of Employment Security.

Fred Giertz, economist at the University of Illinois, explained that although the statewide economy is slowly improving, the unemployment level is still high because not many enterprises have the need to hire more people. Their productivity level has improved, making their current level of workforce adequate for their operations.

According to Geoffrey Hemings of the University of Illinois, the state lost a total of 306,000 jobs between August last year to August this year.

Florida foreclosure listings are still growing and home prices are still falling as the unemployment rate in the state continues to rise, based on data from three real estate research firms.

In the third quarter, Florida was one of six states which comprised 62 percent of all foreclosure actions posted nationwide. Second only to California, Florida had almost 157,000 of its residential properties put into the foreclosure process. With a foreclosure rate of one in 56, it was fourth among all the states in a ranking of rates.

The pace of foreclosure activity in the third quarter this year stepped up by more than 23 percent from the July to September quarter of 2008, although it slowed slightly by 0.71 percent compared to the April to June quarter.

Because of the continued entry of foreclosures into the Florida market, home prices continued to fall, with Miami suffering the steepest price declines.

Based on data from the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index, financial services provider Fiserv predicted that house prices in Miami will fall further by almost 30 percent between June this year to June next year. It said that the median house price of $215,000 this year will drop to $150,715 next year, below the predicted national average.

With real estate owned homes in Florida foreclosure listings reaching nearly 21,800 units in the third quarter, prices statewide are expected to fall further.

Fiserv contended that the rise in foreclosures and the sharp drops in home values could trigger further foreclosure actions as more homeowners deliberately move out of their homes.

Fort Lauderdale was also predicted by Fiserv to suffer steep price declines, with the median house price dropping by more than 26 percent from $218,000 to $160,884.

West Palm Beach meanwhile was predicted to suffer nearly 22 percent in home price drop, falling from its median home sales price of $229,000 to $179,307.

Fiserv also said that house price levels in South Florida will continue to fall in 2010 and 2011, although no longer in double digits.

In September, the adjusted unemployment rate in Florida increased to 11 percent, compared to its adjusted rate of 10.8 percent in August. The rate is higher by 1.2 points than the national jobless rate of 9.8 percent.

Florida lost a total of 360,400 non-agricultural jobs in September. The sectors suffering the highest level of job losses were the trade, transportation, utilities, professional services and construction sectors.