Study: 3,985 properties, or 1 in every 84 Oahu households, was in foreclosure in 2009

Study: 3,985 Oahu properties in foreclosure in ‘09

HONOLULU — Foreclosures on Oahu may have been way up last year, but a new study says the island still had a lower foreclosure rate than 126 other major metropolitan areas of the nation.

Foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac says 3,985 properties, or one in every 84 Oahu households, was in foreclosure in 2009. The activity represented a 142 percent increase from 2008 and a 672 percent rise from 2007.

The 2009 total represented 1.19 percent of all Oahu homes. The average among 203 of the largest metro markets included in the study was 2.21 percent.

Las Vegas-Paradise, Nev., had the worst foreclosure rate with 12 percent of its housing market facing foreclosure last year. Burlington-South Burlington, Vt., and Utica-Rome, N.Y. tied for the lowest foreclosure rate at 0.05 percent.