The worst of the U.S. housing slump may be over but not the foreclosure nightmare that haunts many of the nation’s homeowners.

More than a quarter-million (253,803) pre-foreclosures and notices of pending foreclosure auctions were filed nationwide in the first quarter of the year. That means 2.4 out of every 1,000 homeowners faced losing their property to foreclosure in the first three months of 2007, according to new and expanded foreclosure filing numbers now available from ForeclosureS.com, a California-based real estate investment advisory firm and publisher of foreclosure and property information.

Those numbers are up 22.5 percent from the 207,128 filings in the fourth quarter 2006. They also don’t include tens of thousands more now-vacant properties that actually were lost to foreclosure during that same period. Those REO or bank-owned real estate filings totaled 110,791 in the first quarter alone, reports ForeclosureS.com, which has been analyzing housing markets since 1992.

Posted: 04|16|07 at 4:20 pm. Filed under: Property News.