Every time we get the monthly foreclosure numbers from RealtyTrac, I hear someone on TV say, ‘Well, the problem is really only concentrated in a handful of states.”

Yes, the volumes are, the problems are not.

Take a read from the RealtyTrac release:

“Five states accounted for 51 percent of U.S. foreclosure activity in May, led by California, where 51,906 properties received a foreclosure filing during the month.

A total of 19,192 Florida properties received a foreclosing filing in May, the second highest state total despite a 62 percent decrease from May 2010

A total of 14,614 Michigan properties received a foreclosure filing in May, the third highest state total, followed by Arizona, with 13,122 properties receiving a foreclosure filing during the month, and Nevada, with 11,039 properties receiving a foreclosure filing during the month.

Other states with foreclosure activity totals among the nation’s 10 highest in May were Illinois (10,574), Georgia (10,503), Texas (9,055), Ohio (8,379), and Wisconsin (4,660).”

I would argue that despite these numbers, the foreclosure crisis affects every market in every state in the nation, due to the direct correlation to falling home prices.

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I spent this morning at a conference by Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. They released a survey showing one in four renters, low and middle income, are spending more than half their income on rent and utilities. That’s about 10 million households.

As rental demand surges, and supply dwindles, rents are going up, and wages are not rising to meet the new rental normal.

“These affordability problems are marching up the income scale,” notes JCHS’s Eric Belsky. “It means more people have less money to spend on household necessities such as food, health care, and savings.”

This study came out about an hour before the folks at SP/Case Shiller informed us that home prices are now a “hair’s breadth” away from the dreaded double-dip. If prices are so low, you would think some of those renters might be prompted to buy, but noooo. Tight credit and a complete lack of confidence in the investment value of a home are keeping all those potential buyers on the rent rolls.

So now we have a new conundrum. You can’t/don’t want to buy, but you’re going to pay an arm and a leg to rent. This point is not lost on the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Shaun Donovan, whom I interviewed this morning at the conference.

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