The number of U.S. homeowners entering the foreclosure process climbed 75 percent in 2007 from a year earlier as mortgages became more difficult to refinance and falling property values made it tougher to sell.
More than 1 percent of U.S. households were in some stage of foreclosure during the year, up from 0.58 percent in 2006, RealtyTrac Inc. said Tuesday.
In Utah, however, the foreclosure rate declined nearly 26 percent from 2006 to 2007 to 0.852 percent, according to RealtyTrac. In all, 7,438 homeowners entered the foreclosure process last year in Utah, which ranks No. 15 nationally in foreclosures.
Utah's rate probably will increase this year from 2007 levels. With the state's economy and the real estate market slowing down, more people are having trouble selling their homes, and selling prices are expected to fall. It's the same problem seen in other parts of the country, just one or two years later.
''There are more [foreclosures] to come,'' said Paul Miller, an analyst at Friedman Billings Ramsey & Co. in Arlington, Va. ''People who never should have been in a home bought them, and now the easy money is gone.''
Home prices nationally fell in 2007 for the first time in at least 40 years, and the number of mortgages available to homeowners fell, creating concern the housing slump will hurt consumer spending and push the world's largest economy into recession.

The number of U.S. homeowners entering foreclosure doubled in December from a year earlier, RealtyTrac said.