10 States with the Highest Foreclosure Rates

For several months, Florida ranked first among the U.S. states with the most number of foreclosures.

Christine DiGangi recently posted in Aol Real Estate that for the first time, Florida no longer held the record for having the highest foreclosure rate, nor was it at the No. 2 position, as it ranked fourth this time.

From June 2012 to the previous month, Florida had one of the top three foreclosure rates. According to the monthly report on the nation's residential foreclosure generated by the housing data company RealtyTrac, the number of houses foreclosed in Florida was down by 33 percent from August 2014 to last month. Likewise, the country experienced a decline in the number of homes with foreclosure filing - default notices, bank possessions and bank repossessions, by 6 percent from August last year.

The number of homes undergoing the foreclosure process for the first time also was at its lowest starting November 2005. For every 1,205 housing units in the United States, one had a foreclosure filing in August.

 In most parts of the country, there was an increase in the number of bank repossessions, which is an indicator that there will be more available properties in the market for the coming months.

All over the U.S., these distressed properties are given a 33 percent below the market price, making them affordable to aspiring homebuyers.

The Vice President of RealtyTrac, Daren Blomquist, discussed the data in a news release saying, "This influx of bank-owned inventory may be good news for an inventory-challenged housing market, but buyers and investors interested in purchasing these bank-owned homes should understand they tend to be lower-value properties in areas where house values have not recovered as quickly and are more likely to have deferred maintenance issues that will need to be addressed."

Here are the ten states where foreclosures have been common this August: