Foreclosures

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah’s September foreclosure rate remains the 16th highest in the nation for a second month.

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah’s foreclosure rate is the 26th highest in the nation after posting a more than 70 percent drop in activity since last July.

SALT LAKE CITY -- Homebuyers in Utah with a low credit score or minimal savings can receive down payment assistance through two new programs announced by state officials Monday.

SALT LAKE CITY — The money Utah will receive from a national settlement with big mortgage lenders might not be enough to pay every homeowner entitled to receive a share, state lawyers said Thursday.

LAS VEGAS -- The Ballard house was as unassuming as any in the stucco outskirts of Las Vegas: a two-story box the color of an oatmeal cookie. Police charged inside one night searching for a domestic violence suspect. Instead, they smelled something skunky.

Marijuana. Lots of it.

MESA, Ariz. — Like just about everyone in the Phoenix area, Jen Pollock has lost several neighbors to foreclosure and short sales. And, like hundreds of thousands of others in Arizona, Pollock and her husband are upside down on their mortgage, owing about twice as much as their suburban house is now worth.

LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. -- Rich Philhower knows the trouble a few vacant houses can bring a homeowners association.

President of Governor's Run I, a sub-association of Lehigh Acres' Westminster Golf Community, Philhower, 75, said his community is struggling to rebound from $18,000 in unpaid assessments from three homes over several years.

The debt puts him in a difficult spot: Does he forego some maintenance or raise assessments for remaining homeowners? Neither option is attractive.

"Then you've got people who are upset because you increase the fees," Philhower said.

Three years into the downturn, many associations find themselves in a similar position. Squeezed by foreclosures, they struggle while awaiting outcomes for cases that date back years.