The housing bubble never burst in the Roanoke and New River valleys as violently as it did in more populous parts of the state, such as Northern Virginia. Now, the region finds itself again feeling less of the foreclosure pain.

While foreclosure activity in the Roanoke and New River valleys increased from January to September this year compared with last year, it was significantly lower than in other parts of Virginia, such as Northern Virginia and Norfolk, according to RealtyTrac, a California-based online service that monitors foreclosures.

In fact, foreclosure filings here are some of the lowest in the state, based on RealtyTrac data. The service reports the beginning of the foreclosure process by tracking auctions, bank repossessions and default notices.

From January through September, the number of foreclosure filings rose 59 percent in the Roanoke metropolitan statistical area, with a total of 154, compared with 97 during the same period in 2007. For the Blacksburg-Christiansburg-Radford MSA, foreclosure activity jumped 38 percent from January through September this year. The total was 33 filings, compared with 24 during January through September 2007.

Foreclosure activity by household also is significantly less in the Roanoke and New River valleys compared with other localities. For example, in Roanoke County, there was one foreclosure filing for every 723 households from January through September, according to RealtyTrac. In Fairfax County, there was one foreclosure filing for every 32 households.

The spikes in foreclosure activity for the Roanoke and New River valleys mirror national financial trends, local real estate agents and housing experts said. People with subprime mortgages who can no longer afford to pay for their homes are accounting for the growing number of foreclosures, they said.

And with the faltering economy, it's generally true that "in a downturn, you always have foreclosures go up," said Ted Koebel, a professor of housing and urban planning at Virginia Tech.

But the numbers of foreclosures in these parts of Southwest Virginia are significantly low compared with large numbers throughout the state. That includes 12,186 foreclosures filed from January through September in Fairfax County, 1,089 in Norfolk and 13,176 in Prince William County, according to RealtyTrac data.

"If you look across the country, in terms of where foreclosures are highest, they are in the areas that were most affected by bubble markets," Koebel said.

While home sales have slowed in the Roanoke region in the past year, they never experienced significant peaks during the soaring real estate sales boom earlier this decade. The housing slowdown has not been as significant in Southwest Virginia as in larger cities. Also, the region's unemployment rates have trended slightly upward, without reflecting huge jumps.

Bob Rouse, a real estate agent with Young Realty Co. in Salem, lists about 50 to 60 foreclosed properties a year. So far this year, that number has not changed, he said. The average value of a home in foreclosure in the Roanoke Valley is $100,000, he added.

Though he acknowledged that even a slight increase in local foreclosures isn't good, "Roanoke is protected," compared with other parts of the state. "We really don't realize how nice we have it," he said.

When investors come to Rouse seeking foreclosure property to purchase, many expect to be able to buy a home for 50 percent less than its asking price. After all, that's the way home sales are happening in harder-hit states. Rouse reminds them that the Roanoke Valley is not Florida.

"Here you're not going to get away with it," he said. "We're just not there, thank you, Lord."