Home foreclosures jump in previously untouched cities

Many of the cities that have been hit hardest in the mortgage crisis are seeing a slowdown in the rate of foreclosures, but other metropolitan areas are just starting to feel the sting of foreclosures. Of the 50 metropolitan areas with the worst foreclosure rates, the three biggest year-over-year increases were in Boise City-Nampa, Idaho (up 141.55 percent), Provo-Orem, Utah (up 119.94 percent), and Salt Lake City, Utah (up 105.19 percent), according to RealtyTrac's Q3 2009 Metropolitan Foreclosure Market Report.

Two of the three areas that have been hardest hit since the crisis began actually saw drops in the number of properties receiving foreclosures in the third quarter. Foreclosure activity in Merced, Calif., decreased by 13 percent from the previous quarter, though even with that drop, it had the nation's second-highest foreclosure rate, at 3.72 percent or one in 27 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing during the third quarter. Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., also saw a decrease in foreclosure activity of 5 percent from the previous quarter. It has the third-highest foreclosure rate nationwide at 3.67 percent.