Michigan ranks sixth in the nation in the foreclosure rate for the first quarter, affecting one in every 136 homes, a national listing service for foreclosed homes reported April 29.

That's good news? Compared with Nevada -- No. 1 with a rate of one in every 27 homes, five times the national average -- Michigan’s rate doesn’t look so bleak.

Even though Michigan’s rate marked a 12 percent jump over the same period in 2008, Arizona and California would consider that rate a gift.
 
Second place Arizona recorded one in 54 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing, while third-place California saw one in every 58 homes affected, RealtyTrac reported.
 
The troubled Western states – plus Florida and Illinois -- accounted for almost 60% of the national first-quarter foreclosure activity.
 
The national average was one in every 159 homes, for a total of 803,459 for the quarter.
 
Georgia, Idaho, Utah and Oregon rounded out the Top 10.
 
The number of homeowners facing foreclosure spiked in March as banks ended moratoriums on pursuing delinquent borrowers.

Nationally, foreclosure filings — default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions — were reported on 341,180 properties in March, 46 percent more than a year ago and 17 percent higher than February's total, RealtyTrac reported.

Economists predicted that the climbing jobless rate will feed the supply of foreclosures, and the glut of inventory would continue to push housing prices down through the end of the year.