Do you want the good news or the bad news first? The good news, at least for homeowners, is that many of the states are starting to see a reduction in the number of mortgage defaults. That doesn't mean there aren't still hundreds of houses on the market that haven't been sold. The bad news is that if you're looking at foreclosures by state you're going to see those decreases aren't true everywhere.

The South

While some of the southern states have been lucky enough not to be hit by the same massive foreclosure levels as the West Coast and parts of the Midwest, they are now starting to see growing numbers of people being unable to pay their mortgages. Take Alabama, for instance. Right now, the state ranks a comfortable #39 in foreclosures by state but has since their number of defaults increase by nearly 25% in just one year.

Mississippi is another perfect example. The state is currently in the bottom 10 of foreclosures by state because their numbers are fairly low. However, the numbers they do have jumped up an astonishing 100% since the end of 2007. That's huge and my signal a growing problem for the state.

Both South Carolina and West Virginia also saw large double-digit increases in their number of foreclosures, too.

Other States Seeing Increases

Oregon, another of those troubled West Coast states, is currently ranked as the fifth highest in terms of foreclosures by state but next time they may be even higher since their rate of defaults jumped by more than 45% in one year.

North Dakota, New Jersey, and New York have all also seen double-digit jumps in their default numbers, probably as a result of massive amounts of unemployment throughout the United States which makes paying the mortgage a real challenge.