Missouri leads nation in year-to-date foreclosures

Those are the findings of a recent housing market analysis by www.foreclosures.com, a California-based real estate investment advisory firm and publisher of foreclosure property information.

In the first two months of 2007, the number of foreclosure filings skyrocketed 240 percent to 5,966 from 1,753 during the same period last year.

California came in second with 50,388 foreclosures filed year-to-date versus 17,720 in 2006, a 184 percent increase.

Foreclosure filings in the Midwest rose more than 70 percent from 2005 to 2006, and the number of foreclosures in Missouri nearly doubled to more than 16,000 last year.

Kansas and Iowa saw triple-digit increases in foreclosure filings, while many other states, including Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska and North Dakota, struggled with increases of more than 80 percent last year. Missouri also topped that list with a 96.5 percent increase.

The Midwest region – Missouri, Kansas, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Ohio, Wisconsin and Illinois – did, however, see a decline in filings from January to February.

Last month, there were 17,329 foreclosures filed in the Midwest compared to 20,272 in January, according to the release.