April foreclosure filings up 32 percent from a year earlier

The rising nationwide unemployment rate is costing people not only their jobs but also their homes.

In April, foreclosure filings were reported on more than 342,000 properties across the country, less than a 1 percent increase over March but a 32 percent hike over a year earlier, according to Irvine, California-based RealtyTrac. That means that 1 in 374 U.S. homes got a foreclosure filing last month. (Foreclosure filings include default and auction-sale notices and bank repossessions.)

"Much of this activity is at the initial stages of foreclosure—the default and auction stages—while bank repossessions, or REOs, were down on a monthly and annual basis to their lowest level since March 2008," said RealtyTrac CEO James J. Saccacio, in a release. "This suggests that many lenders and servicers are beginning foreclosure proceedings on delinquent loans that had been delayed by legislative and industry moratoria. It's likely that we'll see a corresponding spike in REOs as these loans move through the foreclosure process over the next few months."

Ten states accounted for more than three-quarters of April foreclosure activity, said RealtyTrac, with California (96,560), Florida (64,588), Nevada (16,266) and Arizona (16,245) having the greatest number of filings. These states were followed by Illinois (13,647), Ohio (12,324), Georgia (11,521), Texas (11,314), Michigan (10,830), and Virginia (6,254).

Las Vegas alone saw filings on 14,073 properties—or 1 filing for every 56 homes, the highest foreclosure rate among U.S. metropolitan areas with at least 200,000 people.

"In order to really stem foreclosure, you have to arrest the downdraft in jobs and reduce the amount of negative equity homeowners are struggling with," Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Economy.com, said in "The Next Wave Of Foreclosures," on Forbes.com last month. e-mail | Twitter

Essential information: If you're having financial trouble and are concerned making your mortgage payments, read "White House Launches Mortgage-Assistance Web Site" for details on the federal government's Making Home Affordable program. Learn how to avoid becoming a victim of a home-related financial scam and find out what a "foreclosure vulture" is.