Portland foreclosure rate doubles

Ryan Frank at the Oregonian reports that the foreclosure rate in Portland has doubled in a year.

He continues, "The Portland area and Oregon are still doing better than the national average in mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures. But the troubles here are growing worse at a faster than the nation in the September report from First American CoreLogic. Portland's delinquency rate was 5.99 percent in September, Oregon's 4.97 percent and U.S. 7.27 percent. But since September 2008, the delinquency rate in Portland and Oregon has grown more than twice as fast as the nation's. The foreclosure rate growth shows a similar is slightly less dramatic spread."

Although this makes for a great headline, it's important to know that the numbers the report references are inaccurate; foreclosures are counted when a property goes into default, then again when it goes up for auction. If the homeowner brings it current and then months later goes into default again, they are counted as an additional foreclosure. So although, the numbers are striking, there should be some sort of allowance for multiple listings of the same property. In the instance above, the home would be counted as three or four foreclosures, when in reality it was just one home.