Are Fourteen of the Top 20 U.S. Metro’s shedding their Foreclosure Shackles? ForeclosureConnections

• 14 leading American metros post year on year improvements

• But the Sunbelt States are lagging far behind

• This may be more then a blip …

• … but there’s a lot more to be done elsewhere

There’s good news for the property market in more than a few of the top 20 American metro areas, with 14 out of 20 reporting year-on-year improvements in their foreclosure rates compared to the first quarter of 2009, despite a general increase across the States.

According to a real estate services provider these declines are indicative of some successes being achieved through government intervention efforts, although the company was as pains to stress that this did not mean that the back of the problem was anyway near broken.

Of the top 20 metros, the Sun Belt continued to feel this most pain, with the four Sun Belt States occupying the four worst positions in the table and contributing largely to the overall less than acceptable 14 / 20 result. By comparison, 14 / 16 of the other leading American areas showed improvements in their foreclosure rate for the first quarter of 2010 compared to the same period in 2009.

Elsewhere in the States things were not nearly as good. Of the top 20 metro foreclosure rates, California claimed 10, followed by Florida with 7. Nevada scored 2, with Arizona bringing up the tail with just 1.