High unemployment and lackluster job prospects aren’t helping the bleak foreclosure picture. All told, foreclosure activity jumped in 149 of the country’s 206 largest metropolitan areas last year, foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday.

Although New England is less troublesome than states like Arizona and California, it has not been immune to foreclosures. In fact, the Worcester metro area has ranked in the top 100 of the nation’s metro foreclosure rates, according to a new report.

The area ranked 89th in the nation, with 5,864 properties with foreclosure filings in 2010. That’s 1.85 percent of housing units in the Worcester area, according to RealtyTrac. The number represents a 6.79 increase from 2009, but a 7.57 drop from 2008.

"We’ve actually had a sea change in what’s causing foreclosures, from the overheated home prices and bad loans to a second wave of foreclosures actually caused by unemployment and economic displacement," said Rick Sharga, a senior vice president at RealtyTrac.

Some areas, like in California, saw a drop in foreclosures in 2010. However, a big reason for the decline is lenders took steps to delay foreclosure actions in these states as they sought to manage the flow of troubled properties coming onto their books. In the final months of last year, several lenders went further, temporarily halting foreclosure activity to deal with allegations of improper evictions.

About 2.4 million homeowners nationwide have only 5 percent or less equity in their homes, according to data from CoreLogic.

Lenders took back 1 million properties in 2010, and no metro area saw more homes repossessed by lenders than Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale in Arizona.

Some 55,372 properties were taken back by lenders there last year, up 17 percent from the year before.