Home foreclosure rates in the Tucson area have jumped anywhere from 60 percent to 90 percent, depending on who’s doing the reporting, but they’re still nowhere near what the rates of the Phoenix or California.

RealtyTrac - www.realtytrac.com - is an online marketplace for foreclosure properties. In its first quarter 2008 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report Tucson ranked 54th among the top 100 foreclosure cities in the country. There were 1,864 foreclosures in the quarter, up 14.5 percent from fourth quarter 2007 and up 90.2 percent compared to the first quarter 2007.

Another report on foreclosures, from Default Research Inc., said there were 3,540 foreclosures in Pima County in the past 12 months with 303 of them in March, which was up 63.8 percent compared to March 2007.

While the year-over-year numbers are up markedly, RealtyTrac’s survey said Tucson represents just 6.8 percent of the state’s total. One way of putting that in perspective, is that Tucson represents 16.2 percent of Arizona’s population. That computes out to one foreclosure for every 224 households in Tucson, which is better than the national average of one foreclosure per 194 households.

On a statewide basis, RealtyTrac reports Arizona ranks third in foreclosures with 27,404 — and that works out to one for every 95 households. But that’s all due to the Phoenix area with 84 percent of the state’s foreclosures and a rate of one for every 70 households. Phoenix ranked as the nation’s No. 7 city for the amount of foreclosures.

As states go, Nevada led the nation’s per household foreclosure market with one in every 54 households. California was second with one in every 78 homes. The 169,381 foreclosures in California in the first quarter of this year accounted for 26 percent of all foreclosures in the country. After Arizona, Florida, ranked No. 4 in foreclosure rates, averaging one for every 97 households.

Contact reporter Ed Egger at eegger@azbiz.com or (520) 295-4238.