Homeowners facing foreclosure have doubled in the Albuquerque area metro area over the past year, but not all of them stand to lose the roof over their heads. One in every five houses going into foreclosure appears to be owned by real estate speculators, according to Irvine, Cal. based Realty Trac. They bought the houses on speculation that an easy profit could be made on a resale. Nationwide, speculative home buying was much more common. Close to one out of every three houses going into foreclosure appears to be speculator-owned, RealtyTrac reported.

The Albuquerque metro ranked 86 out of 100 cities tracked by RealtyTrac in the third quarter, with one out of every 415 households in some stage of foreclosure. A year earlier in the third quarter of 2007, the rate was much better at one in every 880 households.

Cities with high foreclosure rates, particularly in the Sun Belt, have one thing in common: dramatic drops in home values. The biggest problem with dropping home values is that a homeowner can end up owing more on his or her mortgage than the house is worth.

The Albuquerque metro's residential market is seeing some of the same downward pressure on home prices. The median sales price of an existing single-family house dropped 5.4 percent to $193,025 in the third quarter compared to the same period a year earlier, according to the Greater Albuquerque Association of Realtors. Median means half of houses sold for more and half sold for less.This year's decline in median home price is the first time since 2000