These 15 states are getting hit hardest by foreclosures

Home foreclosures plunged in the first quarter.

According to RealtyTrac, 313,487 US homes were foreclosed on during the first quarter. That's the lowest quarterly total since the first quarter of 2007, a 7% decline from the previous quarter, and an 8% drop from the same quarter last year.

"Some of most stubborn foreclosure cases are finally being flushed out of the foreclosure pipeline, and we would expect to see more noise in the numbers over the next few months as national foreclosure activity makes its way back to more stable patterns by the end of this year," RealtyTrac vice president Daren Blomquist said in the data release.

Still, some states are struggling.

We drew on RealtyTrac's report to highlight the 15 states with the highest foreclosure rates last quarter.

Note: The states are ranked by foreclosure rate, i.e., one in every 'X' homes received a foreclosure filing.