Not long ago, Colorado was one of the hottest housing markets in the country, ranking along with southern California and Las Vegas, but in the past two years, it's been stymied by oversupply and rising interest rates. Now, it leads the nation in foreclosures, with one in every 168 households. That's 700% percent higher than the national average.
A new report from RealtyTrac, a properties listing company, finds that more than 300,000 properties nationwide entered foreclosure during the 3rd quarter-up 43% from a year ago.
"Somewhere between 1.2 and 1.3 million properties will end up in some state of foreclosure over the course of 2006," said Rick Sharga of RealtyTrac, in a published report.
Sharga said that things were so bad in Colorado that the state just set up its own foreclosure help hotline. "There's north of a trillion dollars in adjustable rate mortgages that are going to reset over the next 15 months," he said. "And what that means for the average homeowner is an increase of between 20% and 50% of their monthly mortgage bill."
Foreclosures are predicted to climb until at least the end of the year, and the damage isn't limited to the Centennial State. Nevada and Florida now have the highest foreclosure rates after Colorado and the number of foreclosures in California have tripled since last year.
