Don't Mess With Taxes

Foreclosure activity across the United States increased 19 percent in May, according to the latest monthly report from RealtyTrac.

The foreclosure-following company said that last month, more than 176,000 foreclosure filings were reported. The total includes default and auction sale notices, as well as repossessions.

May 2007 figures were up 19 percent from the previous month and up nearly 90 percent from May 2006. The report also found a national foreclosure rate of one foreclosure filing for every 656 U.S. households during the month.

Bad odds for Nevada homeowners: Nevada last month recorded one foreclosure filing for every 166 households, the nation’s highest for the fifth month in a row and nearly four times the national average. The Silver State's 5,235 foreclosure filings this May were 40 percent higher than in April and nearly five times the number the state reported in May 2006.

Colorado's foreclosure rate was the nation’s second highest: one foreclosure filing for every 290 households, 2.3 times the national average. The state reported 6,321 foreclosure filings, a nearly 9 percent increase from the previous month and an increase of more than 50 percent from May 2006.

Things weren't too golden for Golden State homeowners either. California foreclosures increased 30 percent in May from April and the state's rate was 350 percent higher than a year ago. Coming in third last month, California documented one foreclosure filing for every 308 households, more than twice the national average.

The other states rounding out the May 2007 foreclosure-rate top 10, from fourth to tenth, were Florida, Ohio, Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Indiana and Connecticut.

Close to home: Texas had enough foreclosures to rank 14th in May.

And according to to another RealtyTrac study done for CNNMoney.com, two Austin-area ZIP codes were among the top 500 nationwide for home foreclosures. This second examination looked at foreclosure filings by ZIP code for three months ending June 15.

The 78664 ZIP code in Round Rock, the community north of town that is home to the Astros' AAA club, the Express, had 248 foreclosure filings for the study period, making it one of the nation's leading foreclosure markets, according to RealtyTrac numbers.

Northeast of Austin proper, the 78660 ZIP code in neighboring Pflugerville had 166 filings during that time period.

A total of 22 Texas ZIP codes were included in the list, most of them in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex.

Despite the two foreclosure-plagued Austin suburban ZIP codes, losing a home to the bank has dropped a bit. The Addison-based Foreclosure Listing Service reports that foreclosure postings so far this year for the Austin metro area fell 4 percent compared with the same time last year.

Elsewhere: Oh, yeah. You want more than Texas info, I suppose.

Across the rest of the country, the CNNMoney/RealtyTrac report found that ZIP code 44105 in Cleveland led foreclosures, with 783 filings for the three-month study period. Next came 30310 in Atlanta with 709 filings and 80219 in Denver with 705 filings.

More than a quarter of all leading foreclosure ZIP codes are in California, but quite a few of the worst hit are in the Midwest, according to the report.

You can check out how many of your neighborhood's homes RealtyTrac says are in foreclosure or about to be by simply entering your ZIP code in the site's search engine. For more specifics on the properties, the company wants you to subscribe, but the free version gives you an overview.

The nosy neighbor in me was immediately attracted. So I plugged in my five numbers.

Then when I saw houses listed on nearby streets, I kind of wished I hadn't discovered that some of my neighbors are struggling.