2009 foreclosures - mainly sunbelt but spreading

RealtyTrac, the Irvine, California-based real estate data company, says in its Year-End 2009 Metropolitan Foreclosure Market Report that cities in four Sun Belt states accounted for all top 20 foreclosure rates in 2009 among metropolitan areas with a population of 200,000 or more.  California accounted for nine of the top 20 metro foreclosure rates, followed by Florida with eight, Nevada with two and Arizona with one.  Outside these states, the highest-ranked was Boise City-Nampa, Idaho at No. 24 with 4.66 percent of its housing units receiving at least one foreclosure notice in 2009.  "The first wave of foreclosures was driven by home prices that were unsustainable and unbelievably poor lending practices, but now we have a second wave of foreclosures that it is being driven by unemployment," Rick Sharga, senior vice president at RealtyTrac, said in an interview.  "Foreclosures will likely increase in some of the secondary markets that are the most heavily impacted by unemployment," he said.  James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac, says "Areas like Provo, Utah, Fayetteville, Ark., Portland, Ore., and Rockford, Ill., all posted foreclosure rates above the U.S. average in 2009, and markets like Honolulu, Minneapolis and Seattle saw foreclosure activity increase at more than twice the national pace over the past 12 months — although all three of those markets still had 2009 foreclosure rates that were at or below the U.S. average." Unemployment started driving foreclosures in late 2009 and will not crest until the end of 2010, he said.  Negative equity has also been one of the biggest banes of homeowners, making many unqualified for home loan refinancing and preventing some from selling.