Idaho's foreclosure rate in October improved over September's numbers, although it did show a 157 percent spike from October 2006.
RealtyTrac, an online marketing site that monitors each state's foreclosure rate, reported that 600 homes in Idaho - one filing for every 993 homes - were in some stage of foreclosure last month. It's still 7 percent less than the September figures.
The national October-to-October increase was running 94 percent ahead of the same month a year ago.
Idaho is not the only state where an increasing number of people are in foreclosure, said RealtyTrac Marketing Communications Manager Daren Blomquist.
"I think that people have heard enough about foreclosures that they know it has become an issue," Blomquist said.
Nationwide, RealtyTrac said 224,451 homes were either in default, about to be auctioned off or had been repossessed by the lender.
"Overall foreclosure activity continues to register at a high level compared to last year, but appears to have leveled off over the past two months after hitting a high for the year in August," said James J. Saccacio, RealtyTrac chief executive officer.
He added that while the number of home loans in default was down nearly 9 percent in October, bank repossessions were up nearly 35 percent, which was "evidence that homeowners who enter foreclosure are losing their homes."
The situation in Idaho was a combination of the downturn in the housing and financial sectors as well as layoffs in the high-tech and manufacturing industries, said Idaho chief economist Mike Ferguson.
"What happened at Micron did not come at good time," he said.
Nevada led the nation with 6,618 foreclosure filings in October, or one for every 154 homes. California was second with 50,401 filings, or one for every 258 homes in the state.
The only intermountain state to crack the top 10 was Colorado, which was in seventh place with 5,379 filings, or one for every 382 homes.
Joe Estrella: 377-6465
