Real Estate : : Rocky Mountain News

Foreclosures increased 40 percent in Colorado in 2007 from 2006, according to a report from the Colorado Division of Housing.
Foreclosures have increased 190 percent in the state since 2003.
There were 10,955 new foreclosures during the fourth quarter, bringing the year-end total to 39,915. The 2007 total is 11,400 more filings than 2006, when foreclosures reached a new high of 28,509.
Statewide, there was one foreclosure for every 45 households, with the highest foreclosure rates found in the Denver metro area, Weld county and Pueblo county.
Adams County had the highest foreclosure rate with one foreclosure for every 23 households, while Weld County showed one foreclosure for every 29 households.
Denver, Arapahoe and Pueblo Counties all reported about one foreclosure for every 35 households.
The report also tracks foreclosure sales which increased 45 percent during 2007. Foreclosure sales occur when a foreclosing property is sold to the lender or a third party.
During the fourth quarter, there were 6,295 foreclosure sales bringing the year-end total to 25,320. During 2006, there were 17,451 foreclosure sales.
Unexpectedly, foreclosure sales declined at the end of 2007, dropping from 7,117 during the third quarter to 6,295 during the fourth quarter. Foreclosure sales nevertheless increased 45 percent during 2007, reaching a new high of 25,320.
Foreclosure prevention advocates say the sales number could be much higher.
"Since it launched in late 2006, the foreclosure Hotline has helped over 6,300 families," Zachary Urban, administrator of the Colorado Foreclosure Hotline (1-877-601-HOPE), said in a statement
. "Without the hotline, at least 20 percent more families would have had their homes sold at foreclosure auctions. In fact, we know that during the last quarter of 2007 alone, the Hotline network counseled 950 homeowners and over 700 of them avoided foreclosure."
Not all regions of Colorado are affected equally.
N Foreclosures were comparatively rare in the central mountains and on the Western Slope. In Mesa County, there was one foreclosure for every 136 households, and in La Plata County, there was only one foreclosure for every 234 households.
Experts point to the large amount of recent home construction along the Front Range as a central factor in why foreclosures rates are much lower outside of the Front Range.
"Foreclosures are being partially driven by a very high inventory of newly-built homes," Kathi Williams, co-Chair of the Colorado Foreclosure Task Force and Director of the Colorado Division of Housing, said in a statement. "In many cases in the Denver area, someone who can't make his payments simply can't sell his house fast enough to avoid that final foreclosure sale. In high-demand markets like Durango or Vail, you don't have that problem."
Urban and Williams noted that foreclosure sales rate is what concerns them the most.
"The foreclosure sale is the last and most serious phase of the foreclosure process," said Williams. "It's very difficult to do much about foreclosure filings, but for every filing that doesn't make it to the final sale, that's one more house that isn't sitting vacant in a neighborhood. And we hear a lot from neighborhoods asking what they can do. The best thing we can do right now is prevention."
The Division of Housing report does not make projections for increases or decreases in foreclosure activity for 2008, noting only that "there is no an indication at this time that foreclosures will decline in the near future."
In response to the large number of foreclosures, the Colorado Division of Housing and the Colorado Foreclosure Hotline are hosting foreclosure forums around the state.