Foreclosure filings double

The number of Utah households in danger of losing their homes almost doubled in the first half of the year as more people lost their jobs and were struggling or unable to pay their monthly mortgage bills.

On a state-by-state basis, Utah had the nation's fifth-highest rate of filings in the January-through-June period, with 1.46 percent of all houses receiving at least one foreclosure filing, according to a report released Thursday by listing service RealtyTrac Inc.

Filings in the state soared 87.65 percent during the six-month period, with one of every 69 homes receiving a default notice, late-payment warning, auction sale notice or a bank repossession notice.

"It's getting worse," said Tara Rollins, executive director of the Utah Housing Coalition. "We saw it in two different ways, one, when mortgages were readjusting we saw a wave. Then all of a sudden people started losing their jobs, and that was another wave."

The surge of looming foreclosures is rooted in Utah's atypical religion-based culture that puts a premium on young and large families, local economists say. The recession, which has robbed the state of 46,100 jobs in the past year, is compounding the pressures families feel, said Jeff Thredgold, a consulting economist for Zions Bank.

"People get married younger. We have families younger. We have 50 percent more kids per adult. So even when times are good in Utah we still have financial stress -- in some cases more

average stress per family than is typically found around the country."

Nationally, the number of households facing foreclosure soared by nearly 15 percent in the first half of the year, according to RealtyTrac.

Nevada had the nation's highest rate of filings, with more than 6 percent of all households receiving a notice. Arizona was No. 2, followed by Florida, California and Utah. Rounding out the top 10 were Georgia, Michigan, Illinois, Idaho and Colorado.

For those in trouble, "their balance sheets aren't in order and they are struggling with family finances and they get behind on their mortgage payments. The question is, can they catch up? There's a lot of heartbreak out there," said James Woods, director of the Bureau of Economic and Business Research at the University of Utah.

The mushrooming growth in filings nationally affected more than 1.5 million homes. The data show that, despite the Obama administration's plan to encourage the lending industry to prevent foreclosures by handing out $50 billion in subsidies, the nation's housing woes continue to spread.

Experts don't expect foreclosures to peak until the middle of next year.

Foreclosure filings rose more than 33

percent in June, compared with the same month last year, and were up nearly 5 percent from May. "Despite all the efforts, we clearly haven't got a handle on how to address the situation," said RealtyTrac's Rick Sharga.

More than 336,000 households received at least one foreclosure-related notice in June, according to the foreclosure listing firm's report. That works out to one in every 380 U.S. homes. The filings include default notices and several other legal notices that home- owners receive before they actually lose their homes. All filings don't necessarily turn into foreclosures.

The Obama administration in March launched a $50 billion plan to give the lending industry financial incentives to modify mortgages to lower payments, but it's off to a slow start. As of early July, 130,000 borrowers were enrolled in three-month trial modifications under the plan, and 25 mortgage companies have signed up to receive payments of up to $18.6 billion. But analysts and housing counselors say it isn't having much of an impact yet.

In testimony prepared for delivery at a Senate hearing Thursday, Bank of America executive Allen Jones said the company has 80,000 loan modifications in the works, including some that aren't in the three-month trial phase yet.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.