Foreclosure rate explodes in Fairfax County

Fairfax County saw five times the number of home foreclosures in the first half of 2007 as it had during the same period last year, according to county figures. The problem grew as homeowners increasingly found themselves unable to pay their mortgages or sell their houses in a cooling market.

“Fairfax, basically, is not immune from what’s going on in the rest of the country,” said Ira Rheingold, executive director of the National Association of Consumer Advocates.