* Foreclosure actions up in 3 of 4 large metro areas in H1
* Hardest-hit markets improve but well above U.S. averages
* Job creation needed to stem foreclosures, boost prices

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By Lynn Adler

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Foreclosures rose in three
of every four large U.S. metro areas in this year's first
half, likely ruling out sustained home price gains until 2013,
real estate data company RealtyTrac said Thursday.

Unemployment was the main culprit driving foreclosure
actions on more than 1.6 million properties, the company
said.

"We're not going to see meaningful, sustainable home price
appreciation while we're seeing 75 percent of the markets have
increases in foreclosures," RealtyTrac senior vice president
Rick Sharga said in an interview.

Foreclosure actions, which include notice of default,
scheduled auction and repossession, in the first half rose in
154 of the 206 metro areas with populations of 200,000 or
more.

"We're not going to see real price appreciation probably
until 2013," Sharga said. "We don't see a double dip in
housing, but we think it's going to be a long painful recovery
for the next three years."

Nine of the 10 metro areas slammed hardest by the
foreclosure tidal wave improved from the first half of 2009,
suggesting a peak at rates that are still up to five times the
national average, RealtyTrac said in its midyear 2010
metropolitan foreclosure report.

Cities with the 20 highest foreclosure rates were all in
Florida, California, Nevada and Arizona.

Las Vegas had the country's highest metro foreclosure rate
in the first half of the year, with 6.6 percent of its housing
units, or one in 15, getting a filing. The number of
properties getting a notice, however, fell 9 percent from the
same period last year.

More than 3 million households are seen getting at least
one foreclosure notice this year, and this record will be
surpassed slightly at the peak of next year, RealtryTrac
expects.

Banks will take over at least a record 1 million mortgages
this year, RealtyTrac estimated earlier this month, noting
that more than 5 million loans are seriously delinquent and
face foreclosure.

FORECLOSURES TRACK HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT

All of the top 10 metro areas with the highest foreclosure
rates, except for Phoenix, also had unemployment rates above
the national average of 9.5 percent.
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As long as unemployment hovers near 10 percent and
unrelenting foreclosures hang over the market, prices cannot
stage a lasting comeback. Home prices are about 29 percent
lower, on average, than peaks set four years ago.

"If unemployment remains persistently high and foreclosure
prevention efforts only delay the inevitable, then we could
continue to see increased foreclosure activity and a
corresponding weakness in home prices in many metro areas,"
RealtyTrac Chief Executive James J. Saccacio said in a
statement.

Home prices rose in May for the second month, still
propped up by the crush of demand for homebuyer tax credits
that ended April 30, according to Standard &
Poor's/Case-Shiller indexes.

But that momentum will not last, economists agree.

Unemployment and wage cuts are chipping away at confidence
and could slice average prices as much as 10 percent before a
gradual climb resumes, many housing experts predict.

Sharga said the recent nominal price increases suggest
that lenders so far have managed the distressed property flow
well and buyers are bidding for those houses when they do get
listed for sale.
(Reporting by Lynn Adler; Editing by Jan Paschal)