Record joblessness and underemployment keep Las Vegas #1 in home foreclosures

I live in suburban Las Vegas, which has been hit particularly hard by the Great Recession: it's currently #1 in unemployment, slipping past Michigan when the Silver State's jobless rate hit 14.1% last month, and it's been tops in the rate of home foreclosures for too many months to count.

The good news is that the state saw a decline in foreclosures in the first half of 2010, compared to last year, but the bad news is that it kept its dubious #1 national ranking, according to California-based RealtyTrac, which monitors foreclosures nationwide.

The company reported Wednesday that Nevada's foreclosure filings dropped 13% in 2H/2010 compared to the second half of 2009, and decreased 6% when compared to the first six months of last year.

Nevada had 64,429 foreclosures in the first half of 2010, which equates to one filing for every 17 homes, or almost 6% of all houses in the state, RealtyTrac reported.

Nevada had 38,077 foreclosure filings in the second quarter of 2010, which was 10% higher than the first quarter, RealtyTrac reported. The second quarter filings, however, were 13 percent lower than in the same period in 2009. Almost 11,000 homes were repossessed in the second quarter.

 

As if that isn't enough bad news, the area’s foreclosure problem isn’t over, according to national research firm CoreLogic.

In May, 21% of Las Vegas mortgages were delinquent by 90 days or more, CoreLogic says. Contrast that to January 2009, when the 90-day delinquency rate was 13%. The jump is a reflection of the poor economy - worse in Las Vegas than in much of the country because of the city's near total economic dependence on tourism and gaming - and the large numbers of Las Vegans who have lost their jobs or had work hours cut by the massive casino resorts along the Strip who employ hundreds of thousands, either directly or indirectly.

Backing that up, Forbes magazine published the results of an analysis earlier this week that put Las Vegas at the top of its list of riskiest cities for homeowners. 

Nevada had 38,077 foreclosure filings in the second quarter of 2010, which was 10% higher than Q1, RealtyTrac reported. The second quarter filings, however, were 13% below the level of the same period in 2009. The pace of properties entering foreclosure slowed because lenders delayed proceedings in favor of more short sales and loan modifications, the firm said.

Rounding out the Top 5 on the most residential foreclosures, Arizona was #2, Florida #3, California #4 and Utah #5.