This means Alaska had only about 830 foreclosure properties in the entire period of 2007. Compare that figure to the more than 476,000 housing units which received foreclosure filings in 2007 in California, one of the three states ranking high on charts of foreclosures by state.

Mark Romick, head of planning at Alaska Housing Finance Corporation, said the state economy is stable and the number of foreclosure properties is not significant enough to hurt the economy.

There have been no mass job layoffs in the state, according to Tracy Reno, manager for home ownership at nonprofit Neighborworks Anchorage. Reno said there are some concerns about foreclosure properties in the central areas of Anchorage and the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, but across the state, foreclosure is not triggering a crisis.

Caroline Schultz, an economist working for the state government of Alaska, has the same optimistic view. Schultz is still concerned about the situations of families suffering because of foreclosures, but she is glad state officials are undertaking measures to prevent the state from suffering the level of foreclosures happening in other states.

Reno of Neighborworks asserted the key for homeowners to prevent foreclosure is to be proactive. She said homeowners should contact their lenders or housing nonprofits as soon as they miss the first payment. Reno said she and her staff have seen that most foreclosure properties were the results of people losing their jobs, getting seriously ill or having a death in the family, which are things out of their control.

Romick of Alaska Housing has several pieces of advice for homeowners threatened by foreclosures. Once homeowners miss one monthly payment, they should call their lenders and explain their financial circumstances. The lenders could lay out for them several options. Having several options to choose from before a foreclosure action is filed makes it easier for the lender and for the homeowner to work out an agreement that could benefit both sides.

In addition, state officials are advising troubled homeowners to contact immediately counselors certified by the HUD. Certified counselors are trained and are more experienced in saving homes from becoming foreclosure properties.

Visit FindForeclosureProperties.com and find a lot of foreclosed homes for sale.

According to Jerry Moses, Prudential Jack White/Vista Real Estate associate broker, about 80 percent of houses in the real estate market in the latter part of 1980 were foreclosure properties.

Moses, who has been working in the real estate market since 1983, said that during the 1980s, prices of homes declined by nearly 50 percent when foreclosure properties shot up. He noted that houses that were valued for about $200,000 were sold back then for $80,000.

Real-estate agent Uli Johnson recalled the effects of foreclosures on the area back then. He remembered the abandoned houses, the empty subdivisions, the number of banks that closed and the interest rates that doubled from 8 percent to 16 percent.

Johnson handled about 50 foreclosure properties in the latter years of 1980. She claimed that over a dozen other real estate brokers handled foreclosure properties at that time.

Today, Johnson is only one of the few real estate brokers who handle foreclosure properties, and she currently has 14 distressed properties on her portfolio.

Meanwhile, a report from Alaska’s labor department showed that the state’s 1,131 foreclosure was the third from the bottom in the country in 2008. The figures represented the highest for 15 years. However, the 2008 data was way below the record foreclosure rate of 6,821 in 1988.

But the labor department’s data did not bring any relief to 275 distressed families in the state who are facing the threat of losing their properties to foreclosures.

Some of them defaulted on their mortgage payments because they lost their jobs, while others took out a mortgage for the second time which caused exorbitant monthly payments.

On the other hand, the Susitna-Matanuska Borough experienced an increased in repo homes but not to the extent where it influence market assessments. Dave Dunivan, borough assessor, explained that market assessments will only be affected when foreclosure homes begin pulling down home values in neighborhoods.

Mortgage holders and real estate professionals are optimistic that the borough’s housing market is stabilizing after its rapid increased in values.