According to the RealtyTrac U.S. Foreclosure Market Report issued today, the total number of properties with foreclosure activity in April reached the highest level on a monthly basis since RealtyTrac began issuing the report in January 2005. Foreclosure filings were reported on 243,353 U.S. properties during the month -- certainly a big number, although only a tiny fraction of the nation's 126 million total housing units. Still, nearly a quarter million properties in one month can have a significant impact on a housing market that is registering about 5 million existing home sales for the entire year.

"Although only about 2 percent of households nationwide will be in some stage of foreclosure this year, these properties contribute to already bloated inventories of homes for sale, and put downward pressure on home values," said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. "Areas of California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona continue to be particularly hard-hit. Property tax bases are eroding, putting municipal budgets in peril. For example, the city council in Vallejo, California -- part of a metropolitan area with a foreclosure rate that ranked sixth highest in the nation in April - last week voted to have the city file for bankruptcy."

View full RealtyTrac report.

We'd like to know more about how foreclosures are affecting local housing markets across the country. To get the conversation started, we've asked some members of the RealtyTrac Agent Network to provide insight into their local markets in a series of blog posts on Foreclosure Pulse over the next few days. The first post is provided by Gloria Tate of Raso Realty, Inc., in Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla. -- where the foreclosure rate ranked fifth highest among the 230 metro areas tracked by the RealtyTrac report.

View Gloria Tate's post about the Cape Coral market.

Look for more local market perspectives coming soon and please post a comment on any of these posts if you have something to add, a question or a different perspective.