US shows the foreclosure rates on houses has grown 57% in one year - 4,500 a week. Bad news in CA,FL and the Lone Star State

The RealtyTrac® Monthly U.S. Foreclosure Market Report provides a count of the total number of properties with at least one foreclosure filing reported during the month . The January report has just been published.

This shows that default notices, auction sales notices and bank repossessions — were reported on 233,001 properties during the month, an increase of:

1. 8 % from December
2. 57% since January 2007 (which grew 19% on January 2006)

Amongst all the States of the Union Nevada showed a 95% increase since last year, Californai and Florida followed not far behind - see map

Despite a month-over-month drop in foreclosure activity, Nevada continued to document the highest foreclosure rate among the 50 states. Foreclosure filings were reported on a total of 6,087 Nevada properties during the month, a 45 % decrease from the previous month but still a 95 % jump from January 2007.

Foreclosure filings in the Sunshine State of Californai were the highest reported , at 57,158 properties , up 7 % from the previous month and up 120 % from January 2007. Florida was 2nd and Texas third highest.

The Census Bureau reported this week that new-home builders inventories of completed homes without buyers hit a record 197,000 in December, and slipped only to 195,000 in January. The median age of such houses is up to 6.7 months, twice the levels of the 2006 peak - that's a lot of money tied up - so prices are dropping.

The states low foreclosure rates are the ones that missed the boom in housing prices and now have reasonably good economies. In South Dakota, there were only 50 homes involved in foreclosures last year, a minuscule 0.007 % of homes in the state. Vermont, Maine, West Virginia and North Dakota also turned in rates below 0.1 percent.