ForeclosureS.com: Southwest Foreclosures Lead the Nation in 2006.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The nation's Southwest region earned the dubious title of the foreclosure leader of the nation in 2006. One out of nearly every 2.2 foreclosures in the United States happened there.

California, Texas, and Colorado were among the region's hardest hit states, according to numbers from ForeclosureS.com, a California based real estate investment advisory firm and publisher of foreclosure property information.

California topped the nation with 157,417 foreclosure filings, up a whopping 94.3 percent over 2005's 81,012 filings. Colorado, with 68,310 foreclosure filings, was up only 55.4 percent over 2005's 43,951. Texas fared better with its 106,845 filings in 2006, up just 35.2 percent over 2005's 79,001.

Nationwide, nearly one million (970,948) foreclosure filings were reported for the year, up more than 51 percent from just over 641,000 in 2005, according to ForeclosureS.com internally compiled numbers.

Despite those numbers, however, nationwide the worst is over, says Alexis McGee, president of ForeclosureS.com, which has been analyzing housing markets since 1992. "Home inventories now are dropping and markets are improving. That means relief to overextended homeowners who bought homes they couldn't afford with the help of little money down and low teaser-rate mortgages. Until now, with mortgage payments adjusting upward, housing inventories climbing, and prices stagnating, these homeowners have had few options but to lose their house to foreclosure, or capture some of their equity and a fresh start with a quick, honest investor purchase."

Perhaps indicative of better times ahead, four states in the Southwest -- Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Oregon -- saw a drop in fourth-quarter over third-quarter foreclosures filings.

"Although it's impossible to know exactly when we hit the bottom on the price correction, I firmly believe that when the market heats up again this spring, we'll look back at this winter season as our best buying opportunity in six years," adds McGee, author of the upcoming book, "The ForeclosureS.com Guide to Investing: Making Huge Profits Investing in Real Estate -- Without Selling Your Soul" (John Wiley, Spring 2007).

The Southwest region includes Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Washington (visit ForeclosureS.com for more details by state and county).

Let's look closer at a few more regional numbers from ForeclosureS.com:

* Arizona: 21,774 filings in 2006, up just 8.2 percent from 2005's 20,117 filings.

* Nevada: 24,194 filings in 2006, up a staggering 174.8 percent from 2005's 8,805 filings; Clark County (Las Vegas and surrounding area) had more the 7,000 filings in the fourth quarter alone.

* Oregon: 12,902 filings in 2006, down 5.4 percent from 2005's 13,638 filings.

About ForeclosureS.com: Sacramento-based ForeclosureS.com offers more than 1.7 million listings of current foreclosure statistics by state, county and foreclosure notice type for investors. They're also available for media use by contacting [e-mail].