Foreclosures Soar; Nev. Leads Trend

The number of US properties in foreclosure in 2007 was 79% higher than in 2006, with about 1.3 million homes in some phase of the process, the AP reports. Nevada had the highest foreclosure rate, with 3.4% of households in foreclosure. That's 66,316 filings on 34,417 households, or a 200% jump from 2006. And late payments were more frequent late in the year, boding ill for 2008.

Michigan and Florida had the next-highest foreclosure rates. California took the booby prize for highest total number of foreclosures with 481,392 filings on 249,513 properties. "We went from a sort of buying frenzy to a foreclosure frenzy in the last two years," said a VP of the real estate tracking company that released the data. (More foreclosures stories.)