Greeley – Weld County has dropped out of the No. 1 spot in a national ranking of home foreclosure rates, but only because other areas of the country are getting worse, local real estate agents said.
The county had the worst foreclosure rate in the nation for five months at the end of 2006, according to RealtyTrac, a property-listing company that tracks foreclosures nationwide.
This year, the county had 31 percent more foreclosures in the first three months than it did in the same period last year, the Greeley Tribune reported Monday. The county’s rate remains among the 10 worst in the nation but has not been the very worst, the newspaper said.
“I don’t think we’ve seen the proof we’d like to see that things are getting better,” said Greeley-area real estate agent Nate Buie.
Buie said the least-expensive homes have been hit hardest. In the first quarter of 2007, 65 homes in Greeley and nearby Evans sold for less than $100,000, and 92 percent of them were in foreclosure, the newspaper said. Among homes in the $100,000-to-$149,000 range, 40 percent of those sold in the first quarter were in foreclosure, the newspaper said.
