July foreclosures up 93 percent vs year ago: survey

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Home foreclosures rose 9 percent in July from June and soared 93 percent from a year ago as states that once enjoyed a white-hot housing market are now seeing the greatest number of loan failures, a real estate survey reported on Tuesday.

The July foreclosures -- a tally of default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions -- totaled 179,599, according to RealtyTrac, an online marketplace for foreclosure properties.

Five states accounted for more than half of the country's foreclosure activity in the month and two of those -- California and Florida -- saw some of the biggest price gains during the recent housing boom.

Ohio and Michigan, two other states among top five in foreclosures in July, have seen a jump in job losses while Georgia has also suffered a high level of home losses.

The increase reversed a 7 percent drop in foreclosures seen in June. July's rate of one foreclosure for every 693 households was higher than the June pace of one filing for every 704 households, the group said.

Many states that avoided the housing boom have seen a drop in home loan failures and could now be drawing investors scorched out of other markets, James Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac, said in a statement.

"States like Texas, South Carolina and Utah have seen slow but steady price appreciation over the past five years, making them much more attractive and affordable," he said.

Detroit, the largest city in Michigan, posted a 70 percent month-on-month increase in foreclosure activity in July. The city of roughly 871,000 reported 8,683 foreclosure filings during the month.

Six California metropolitan areas reported foreclosure rates among the nation's top 10 in July including: Stockton; Merced; Modesto; Vallejo-Fairfield; Riverside-San Bernardino and Sacramento.

Other metro regions in the top ten were Las Vegas, Atlanta and Greeley, Colorado.