The Associated Press
July 15, 2006
THIS IS A REPUBLISHED ARTICLE SUBMITT BY MARK MAUPIN

State foreclosure rate again tops nation
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DENVER - Colorado had the highest home foreclosure rate in the country in June for the sixth consecutive month, according to a new report.

Foreclosure.com, which tracks foreclosures nationwide, said Wednesday that Colorado had 5,928 active foreclosures last month, or one for every 280 occupied homes.

The number of foreclosures in Colorado fell by more than 1,000, or 18 percent, from January to June, but it wasn’t enough of a decline to knock the state from the top ranking.

Texas, Michigan, Ohio and Georgia had more foreclosures than Colorado, but they had lower foreclosure rates because they have far more houses.

Earlier this week, county records showed foreclosures in Denver and six surrounding counties jumped by nearly a third in the first half of 2006 compared with the same period last year.
Public trustee records made available Monday showed 9,424 home foreclosures were reported in the Denver area in the first half of this year, compared with 7,144 last year, an increase of 31.9 percent.

Some officials have blamed loose lending practices and aggressive building for both the Denver-area and statewide foreclosure rates.

Colorado Attorney General John Suthers said Wednesday that ‘‘creative financing’’ techniques such as interest-only loans, coupled with slow increases in home prices, are bigger factors in the foreclosure rate than fraud.

‘‘If home prices are going up 10 percent, 15 percent or more each year, it doesn’t matter what kind of loan you have,’’ Suthers said. ‘‘But in a market like this, where homes are going up 3 percent or 4 percent, you face losing your home to foreclosure if your mortgage adjusts upwards by hundreds of dollars each month.’’