As the nation’s financial floor crumbles and homeowners continue to slip into foreclosures, St. Tammany residents are no exception. The parish now ranks third statewide for mortgage defaults, according to a nationwide foreclosure database.

St. Tammany home foreclosures surged 104 percent from August 2007 when 43 foreclosures were reported, compared to August this year when 87 were reported, executives with the Irvine, Calif.-based company RealtyTrac Inc. said.

In Louisiana, only New Orleans and Jefferson parishes rank higher, according to the data. In New Orleans, one out of 640 homes is in some sort of foreclosure, while Jefferson Parish boasts one in 1,023 homes and St. Tammany offers one out of 1,072, according to the data. “It’s very hard for someone to turn on the news and feel good about buying,” said Craig Martin, office manager of Keller Realty Services real estate in Mandeville and Hammond. “I blame the national media.”

There is good news, he said. In month-to-month comparisons, local foreclosures dipped 47 percent from July to August, according to the data, which means while foreclosures are still high, they are on the decline. Last year at this time, St. Tammany ranked No. 1 in foreclosures state-wide.

U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., hopes that trend continues. On Wednesday she announced a $38 million federal boost to help stabilize Louisiana neighborhoods hit hardest by foreclosures.

“The housing crisis is one plaguing neighborhoods in states across our country,” Landrieu said. “Here in Louisiana, we have the added challenge of rebuilding properties that have been destroyed by hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and more recently Gustav and Ike.”

But the federal aid nugget should help “uplift neighborhoods across the state and restore value to struggling properties,” she said.

The funds, part of a $3.92 billion nationwide recovery package, will help state and local governments redevelop foreclosed properties that might otherwise become abandoned and blighted, she said.

The funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development allow state and local governments to acquire land and property, demolish or rehabilitate abandoned properties and/or offer down payments and closing cost assistance to low- to moderate-income homebuyers. Those residents, however, must not earn incomes higher than 120 percent of the area’s median income.

For now, some wealthy St. Tammany area residents are already mimicking that effort, Martin said. Many have bought foreclosed properties or are buying homes on sale with low prices — down an average of 4.7 percent locally — to save as a nest egg until home prices rebound, Martin said.

“It’s not a matter of people not buying,” he said, although home sales were down 17.6 percent over the second quarter of last year, according to the St. Tammany Economic Development Foundation. “It’s not as tight here as some think. This is probably the best time for someone to buy because the potential upscale is huge in the future.”

In addition, some lenders are adopting loan servicing guidelines that encourage more pro-active approaches to helping homeowners avoid foreclosure, which is also helping quell the default bubble, Saccacio said.

“The question now is whether these measures will actually reduce foreclosures or simply cause a temporary lull in foreclosure activity,” he said.

Skip Scoggins believes the latter. With talks of a governmental bail out for cash-strapped mortgage and investments banks, the principal partner and namesake of Scoggins Properties GMAC in Mandeville thinks the real estate market is due for an upswing.

“It’s anybody’s guess what’s going to pan out. But we’re nearing the bottom, if not at the bottom, and the light is at the end of the tunnel,” he said.