Utah #10 Nationally for Foreclosures
“Welcome to Utah, one of the new foreclosure capitals of the United States,” read the opening line of today’s Tribune story on foreclosure rates in the beehive state.
Strike out “new” in that sentence and the Trib author would be right. Being number 10 in foreclosures is actually an improvement as this state has been a perennial top five in foreclosures, bankruptcy filings and mortgage fraud.
In June alone, 1,501 households received some type of foreclosure-related filing, up 141 percent from the same month last year, RealtyTrac said. National foreclosure filings were up just 53 percent.
Utah’s foreclosure rate still remains below the national rate - one for every 501 households. But it is now higher than all but nine states.
The last time I checked,
Utah was in the middle of the pack nationally for foreclosures. With the real estate downturn now in full swing, those numbers are changing. If we manage to hold onto the number 10 position, we’ll actually be making an improvement. I think it will be tough to pass up our neighboring bubble states for a while in this category and I’m hoping some of the strong steps the Division of Real Estate has taken to combat fraud will have a positive effect.
Nothing can make up for the fact that in Utah, families are formed at younger ages and these young couples take on debt, including mortgages, at younger ages as well. Until we have a cultural change towards debt and starting families at a young age in this state, we’ll always have a higher foreclosure rate.