Foreclosure filings nationwide increased 57% in January over the same month last year. This is based on the report of RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosure properties. This is a sign that the housing troubles is far from over and will get worse.

The study recorded foreclosure filings — default notices, auction sales notices and bank repossessions. There were 233,001 homes affected including 45,327 homes which were foreclosed by banks last month. The increase is 8 percent from the previous month and an increase of nearly 57 percent from same month last year. Of that total, homes were lost to bank repossessions last month.

RealtyTrac publishes the largest and most comprehensive national database of foreclosure and bank-owned properties, with over 1 million properties from nearly 2,500 counties across the country, and is the foreclosure data provider to MSN Real Estate, Yahoo! Real Estate and The Wall Street Journal’s Real Estate Journal.

Foreclosure Rates
Posting highest foreclosure rates were the states of Nevada, California and Florida. Nevada still retained the top spot among the 50 states even with the month-over-month drop in foreclosure activity. Foreclosure filings were reported on a total of 6,087 Nevada properties during the month, a 45 percent decrease from the previous month but still a 95 percent increase from January 2007.

On the second spot is California’s January foreclosure rate then Florida’s with the third highest foreclosure rate. Other states with the top 10 highest foreclosure rates ranking were Arizona, Colorado, Massachusetts, Georgia, Connecticut, Ohio and Michigan.

Foreclosure Totals
Posting the highest number of foreclosure were the states of California, Florida, Texas. Foreclosure filings recorded in California was 57,158 properties in January, the highest in any state. The state’s foreclosure activity was up 7 percent from the previous month and increased 120 percent from January 2007.

Despite a 3 percent month-over-month decrease in foreclosure activity, Florida’s total of 30,178 properties with at least one foreclosure filing was the nation’s second highest state total. The state’s foreclosure activity was up nearly 158 percent from January 2007.

The nation’s third highest January total was in Texas, where foreclosure filings were reported on 14,698 properties — a nearly 20 percent increase from the previous month, but a slight decrease from January 2007. The state’s monthly foreclosure rate was below the national average and ranked No. 13 among the states.

Ohio, Michigan and Georgia all documented totals of more than 10,000 properties with foreclosure filings reported in January. Other states in the top 10 in terms of total properties with foreclosure filings reported were Arizona, Massachusetts, Illinois and Colorado.

Metro-Foreclosure rates
California and Florida metro areas accounted for eight of the top 10 metro foreclosure rates in January. The Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., metro area documented the highest January foreclosure rate among the 229 metro areas tracked in the report. The other Florida metro area in the top 10 was Port St. Lucie-Fort Pierce, which ranked No. 10.

The Stockton, Calif., metro area documented the second highest metro foreclosure rate. Other California metro areas in the top 10 were Riverside-San Bernardino at No. 3, Modesto at No. 4, Merced at No. 5, Vallejo-Fairfield at No. 7 and Bakersfield at No. 9.

Other cities in the top 10 were Las Vegas at No. 6 and Greeley, Colorado, at No. 8.