Top 20 states by foreclosure rate in January

(AP) - A $25 billion, multistate settlement with the nation's largest major banks is expected to pave the way for more foreclosures this year.

RealtyTrac estimates foreclosures will rise 25 percent this year to 1 million homes.

RealtyTrac Inc. says that banks filed foreclosure-related warnings against 210,941 U.S. homes in January. That's up 3 percent from December, but down 19 percent from January last year.

The number of homes taken back by lenders in January rose 8 percent from the previous month. Repossessions fell 15 percent from a year earlier.

Here is a list of the top 20 states with the highest foreclosure rates in January. The ratio shows, for example, that one out of every 198 households in Nevada received a foreclosure notice during the month. Also highlighted: the number of properties that received notices.

January foreclosure rankings

RANK		STATE		RATIO OF FORECLOSURES TO HOUSEHOLDS		TOTAL PROPERTIES WITH FILINGS
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20		Nevada California Arizona Georgia Michigan Florida Illinois Delaware Colorado Indiana New Hampshire Ohio Utah Wisconsin South Carolina Idaho Minnesota Hawaii Iowa Oregon		1:198 1:265 1:325 1:328 1:354 1:363 1:369 1:373 1:523 1:555 1:584 1:616 1:619 1:620 1:651 1:776 1:778 1:797 1:979 1:1,028		5,931 51,584 8,749 12,467 12,808 24,783 14,349 1,088 4,228 5,039 1,053 8,325 1,584 4,231 3,286 861 3,017 652 1,365 1,630
						Source: RealtyTrac.

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