Why SKREAM?

A record 2.8 million households were threatened with foreclosure last year, and that number is expected to rise this year as more unemployed and cash-strapped homeowners fall behind on their mortgages.

The number of households that received a foreclosure-related notice rose 21 percent from 2008.

The increase in King County was even more dramatic with the number of filings up nearly 60 percent. In Washington state, filings were up 35 percent.

But despite those increases, fewer homeowners faced foreclosure in the greater Seattle area than in the country as a whole.

Nationally, one in 45 homes received some kind of filing — default notices, scheduled foreclosure auctions or bank repossessions — in 2009. In King County the figure was one in 80, in Snohomish County one in 53.

Stemming the tide of foreclosures is an important step for the real-estate market and the economy to recover. Because foreclosures are usually sold at heavy discounts they can lower the value of surrounding properties. Cities lose property-tax dollars from empty foreclosures and declining home values, straining local economies. Home prices have stabilized in some cities but are still down 30 percent nationally from mid-2006.

The foreclosure crisis isn't letting up. Between 3 million and 3.5 million homes are expected to enter some phase of foreclosure this year, said Rick Sharga, senior vice president of Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac, which began tracking the data five years ago.

High foreclosures forced the federal government and several states to come up with plans to prevent or delay foreclosures to help troubled borrowers.

"It was bad, but it could have been much worse, and it probably should have been worse," Sharga said.

Economic issues, such as unemployment or reduced income, are expected to be the main catalysts for foreclosures this year. Homeowners with good credit who took out conventional, fixed-rate loans are the fastest-growing group of foreclosures.

In Washington, Clark and Pierce were the only counties in which more than 2 percent of homes were sent a foreclosure-related notice last year.