Home foreclosures were up 4 basis points from the same time last year. While this is obviously not good news it does need to be put in perspective. Foreclosure rates actually fell in 24 states, and the overall foreclosure rate is still below the 10 year average.

All in all the increase in foreclosures is being driven by just a few states. Florida, Nevada, California and Arizona have seen large increases in foreclosures largely driven by speculators who are seeing home prices stagnate and their ARM rates increase and so they are walking away from the loan.

The other problem states are Ohio, Indiana and Michigan who combined account for nearly 20% of all loans in foreclosure. The problems in these states are due to job losses in the manufacturing sector.