Foreclosures Rising Among Higher End Homes

New York, NY, Oct. 12, 2009--Nearly a third of foreclosures in June involved homes in the top third of local housing values, up from 16% when the foreclosure crisis began three years ago, according to new data from real-estate website Zillow.com.

The bottom one-third of housing markets, by home value, now account for 35% of foreclosures, down from 55% in 2006.

The report shows that foreclosures, after declining earlier this year, began to accelerate in the late spring and that more expensive homes have more recently accounted for a growing share of all foreclosures.

"The slope of that curve in recent months is much sharper than it was recently," said Stan Humphries, chief economist for Zillow.

Foreclosures are rising in more expensive markets as home values in those areas fall, leaving more homeowners with mortgages that exceed the value of their properties.

Zillow estimated that nearly one in four homes with mortgages was worth less than the value of the property at the end of June.