NEW YORK, Aug 14 (Reuters) - U.S. home foreclosure rates in the Las Vegas and Detroit metropolitan areas doubled in the first half of 2007 from a year ago, a report said on Tuesday.

U.S. home foreclosures rates were highest in Stockton, California, Detroit and Las Vegas for the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the first six months of 2007, said RealtyTrac, an online marketplace for foreclosure properties.

Stockton, to the east of San Francisco, suffered one foreclosure filing for every 27 households for a rate that tripled from the same period in 2006.

In the first half of 2007, Detroit showed the second highest foreclosure rate among the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas with one foreclosure filing for every 29 households, while Las Vegas was third with one foreclosure filing for every 31 households.

Detroit and Las Vegas foreclosure rates doubled from the same period in 2006. Detroit reported 28,705 foreclosure filings on 20,231 properties while in the metro area of Las Vegas comprising Clark County, 22,928 foreclosure filings were reported on 13,028 properties.

"The overall trend is toward escalating foreclosure rates, with 82 of the top 100 metro areas reporting year-over-year increases in the number of homes affected by foreclosure," said James Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac.

Other cities in the top 10 for foreclosure rates were the California cities of Riverside-San Bernardino, Sacramento and Bakersfield as well as Denver, Miami, Memphis and Cleveland.

McAllen, Texas, Greenville, South Carolina, and Richmond, Virginia, registered the three lowest metro foreclosure rates in the report.

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