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At the risk of appearing obsessed with foreclosure data, I want to run another chart of the country's Top 10 Foreclosure States.  Thank you to my friends at RealtyTrac for running this report special for me.

Foreclosures have always been an issue for banks, but since 2005, the percentage of foreclosure filings coming from the top 10 foreclosure-filing states has moved markedly higher.

• Q1 2005 : 64.3 percent
• Q4 2009 : 72.4 percent

The U.S. foreclosure problem is concentrating by geography.

And meanwhile, the 10 states included in the list -- California, Florida, Illinois, Arizona, Michigan, Texas, Georgia, Nevada, Ohio and Nevada -- account for just 45% of the nation's population.

Distilled, 45 percent of states represent 72 percent of foreclosure filings.

Clearly, some states are more foreclosure-heavy than others. We must use cautioun when interpreting national housing statistics. A few states can distort the bigger picture.

For example, when RealtyTrac says annual foreclosures reached 2.8 million last year and that foreclosures are up by one-fifth, that's a national story.  On a local level, however, the story's much different.

10 states showed year-over-year improvement in 2009 -- including Ohio and Indiana. Both states had been hard-hit by losses in manufacturing.

And even when we examine states like Florida and Arizona -- two of the most foreclosure-heavy states in the nation -- we can find areas in which foreclosure filings are down and the housing market is thriving.

Miami is a terrific example of this.

All real estate is local.  Period.  We can't compare states any more than we can compare Dayton to Cincinnati.  Heck, we can't even put Montgomery and Blue Ash in the same conversation. Even though both towns feed into Sycamore schools, each has unique characteristics that drive its home values.

Big picture data is important, but it's what happens on the streets that matters, pardon the pun.

Buying foreclosures is big business so if you're searching foreclosed homes in Cincinnati, start with this link to RealtyTrac.  There's a 7-day free pass to the database and that should be enough time to help you gauge the market and identify some homes. The local market won't be as big as the national news stories would have you believe, but it's still there.

Then, when you've found a home and need a prequalification letter to accompany your offer, and I'll get you handled.

Working with foreclosures -- especially jumbo ones -- is among my strong suits.

Dan Green is an active loan officer. Email or call 513-443-2020. Dan is on Twitter at @mortgagereports.