The greatest increasesrnin the first half of the year came in Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, up 47rnpercent, Philadelphia (30 percent), Chicago (28 percent), New York City (26rnpercent) and Baltimore (21 percent).  Atrnthe other extreme, Seattle saw a 24 percent drop in foreclosure activity withrnSan Francisco (21 percent), and Detroit (17 percent) also showing improvement.</p

Seven of the top tenrnmetropolitan areas in terms of the foreclosure rate were located in Californiarnwith Stockton posting the highest rate with 2.66 percent or one of every 38rnhousing units receiving a foreclosure filing during the six month period, morernthan three times the national average. rnStockton was followed by Modesto (2.61 percent), Riverside-San Bernardinorn(2.59 percent), Vallejo-Fairfield (2.56 percent) and Merced (2.15rnpercent.)  The Riverside area also hadrnthe highest rate among the 20 largest metropolitan areas followed by Atlanta,rnPhoenix, Miami, and Chicago.  </p

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“Increasingrnforeclosure starts in many local markets helped push total foreclosure activityrnhigher in the first half of this year compared to the second half of 2011,”rnsaid Brandon Moore, CEO of RealtyTrac. “Those foreclosure starts are welcome newsrnfor prospective buyers and real estate brokers in many local markets where arnshortage of aggressively priced inventory has been holding up sales activity.rnMarkets with increasing foreclosure starts will likely see more distressedrninventory for sale in the form of short sales and bank-owned properties in thernsecond half of the year.” 

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