52% of 2008 Foreclosures Were In Only 5 States

RealtyTrac, the leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties, today released its 2008 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, which shows a total of 3,157,806 foreclosure filings — default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions — were reported on 2,330,483 U.S. properties during the year, an 81% increase in total properties from 2007 and a 225% increase in total properties from 2006. The report also shows that 1.84% of all U.S. housing units (one in 54) received at least one foreclosure filing during the year, up from 1.03% in 2007.

MP: If you take out the six states with the highest foreclosure rates (CA, FL, NV, AZ, MI and OH), the 1.84% foreclosure filing rate drops to only 1.1%. Further and probably more importantly (although not reported by RealtyTrac), my analysis of the RealtyTrac data shows that more than half (52%) of the 2008 foreclosures were concentrated in just five states: Arizona, Florida, California, Michigan and Nevada.

Update: Those six states have 28% of the U.S. population, and 52% of the 2008 foreclosures.