Isles rank 41st in foreclosures

Hawaii still ranks near the bottom, at No. 41, in the number of foreclosure filings in the nation, according to RealtyTrac's August 2007 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, although it moved up four places from its July ranking as the number of foreclosures increased again.

Hawaii reported 145 foreclosure filings in August -- a rate of one foreclosure filing for every 3,387 households, the Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac found.

That was a 71 percent jump over July and a 245 percent jump over August 2006, but the company said part of the jump may be due to improved and expanded data coverage in Hawaii.

RealtyTrac switched to a different data collector, according to Daren Blomquist, marketing communications manager, that it believes is providing more comprehensive numbers. Also, Blomquist said a few foreclosures from June and July may have been included in the August numbers.

"Despite the big increases there, the foreclosure rate in Hawaii is still at the bottom end compared to other states," said Blomquist.

Another California firm, Foreclosures.com, ranked Hawaii no. 45 out of 47 states in REOs -- bank-repossessed properties -- per capita in its August report.

Nationally, Realtytrac said foreclosures in August jumped 36 percent over the previous month to a total of 243,947, and up 115 percent over August 2006.

It is the highest number of foreclosure filings in a single month -- one for every 510 households -- reported by RealtyTrac since January 2005, when it began issuing the monthly reports.

Nevada, California and Florida posted the top foreclosure rates nationwide.

RealtyTrac tracks more than 1 million properties from nearly 2,500 counties across the U.S. for MSN Real Estate, Yahoo! Real Estate and the Wall Street Journal's Real Estate Journal.