Staff Report
Published July 26, 2012

Foreclosure filings are up in nearly 60% of the nation’s metro areas in the first half of 2012 compared to the previous six months, RealtyTrac reported.

However, foreclosure activity remains down year-over-year in 129 of the nation’s 212 metro areas, the national foreclosure tracking firm said.

In South Carolina, the highest metro foreclosure rate is in Myrtle Beach-North Myrtle Beach-Conway, with one in every 72 homes under some form of foreclosure. The Myrtle Beach metro area is ranked 28th in the nation.

The state of California had seven of the top 10 metropolitan foreclosure rates during the first half of the year.

“Increasing foreclosure starts in many local markets helped push total foreclosure activity higher in the first half of this year compared to the second half of 2011,” said Brandon Moore, CEO of RealtyTrac. “Those foreclosure starts are welcome news for prospective buyers and real estate brokers in many local markets where a shortage of aggressively priced inventory has been holding up sales activity.

“Markets with increasing foreclosure starts will likely see more distressed inventory for sale in the form of short sales and bank-owned properties in the second half of the year,” he said.  

2012 Mid-year U.S. metro foreclosure market data

Source: RealtyTrac
* Housing units