Against a backdrop of escalating numbers in Colorado and the nation, the Springs and El Paso County were on pace through May to approach a nearly 20-year-old record for most foreclosures in a year.

For the five years ending in 2006, the area had more than double the number of foreclosures it did the previous five years.

A Gazette analysis found the heaviest concentrations of foreclosures in lower- and middle-income neighborhoods.

In parts of the city, one in five homes is in foreclosure.

When homeowners miss mortgage payments, lenders bring a legal action — a foreclosure — to recover the money they loaned. For homeowners going through a layoff, illness or divorce, or who bought a home using a risky type of mortgage, foreclosures often result in the loss of their home.

At what point do rising foreclosure numbers evolve from personal tragedy to community problem?

It could be now, some local economists and real estate experts say.

Others argue that foreclosures will mean the community feels little of the pain it did during the last major foreclosure outbreak in the late 1980s, when there were fewer people, and houses, in El Paso County.