RealtyTrac: April Foreclosures up 4%, 65% y/y

RealtyTrac.com, the leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties, today released its April 2008 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, which shows foreclosure filings -- default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions -- were reported on 243,353 properties, a 4 percent increase from the previous month and a nearly 65 percent increase from April 2007. The report also shows one in every 519 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing during the month.

"Although only about 2 percent of households nationwide are in foreclosure, these properties contribute to already bloated inventories of homes for sale, and put downward pressure on home values. Areas of California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona continue to be particularly hard-hit. Property tax bases are eroding, putting municipal budgets in peril. For example, the city council in Vallejo, California -- part of a metropolitan area with a foreclosure rate that ranked sixth highest in the nation in April -- last week voted to have the city file for bankruptcy."