Here are some interesting contrasts, courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.  Against a background of 4.4% of mortgages, generally, being in some stage of foreclosure as of March, which is down a tad from a year ago’s 4.5% and so still at historic highs, we have the following.

The foreclosure rate remains high largely because of states that require banks to process foreclosures by going to court. In those so-called judicial states, banks and their lawyers have moved to take back homes very slowly….

Thus,

…the foreclosure rate in judicial states stands near 6.9%, and it has been flat or rising over the past year.

On the other hand,

…nonjudicial states have a significantly lower foreclosure rate, at about 2.8%, which has been falling over the past year.

Another way of looking at the data:

Of the 11 states that have foreclosure rates above the national average, ten of them have judicial foreclosure processes. The top three are all judicial states: Florida had a foreclosure rate of 14.3% at the end of March, followed by New Jersey (8.4%) and Illinois (7.5%).

While

…nonjudicial states that had severe housing problems, such as California and Arizona, have seen their foreclosure rates drop below the national average.

Hmm….