This Barrington cottage at 17 Lake Ave. is back on the market for $249,900. The same house sold for $280,000 last May.

The Providence Journal / Mary Murphy

Though still concentrated in inner-city neighborhoods and less prosperous suburban areas, the foreclosure problem is no longer confined there.

In recent months, foreclosures have touched some of the most affluent communities in Rhode Island, including Barrington, East Greenwich, Jamestown, Lincoln, Little Compton, Narragansett and Newport.

RealtyTrac Inc., an Irvine, Calif., company that sells foreclosure data, said that last year and during the first two months of this year, the numbers of foreclosure auction notices included properties in Barrington (23), Cumberland (35), East Greenwich (12), Jamestown (2), Lincoln (16), Little Compton (1), Narragansett (12), Newport (13), North Kingstown (24), Tiverton (10) and West Greenwich (12).

The level of foreclosures in these communities isn’t high enough to drag down neighboring property values, and in higher-end markets, foreclosed properties are usually spared damage from the theft and vandalism that is common in vacant buildings in distressed areas.

Usually, but not always.

A foreclosed house in East Greenwich, now on the market for $749,900, was stripped of its plumbing when thieves broke in through the French doors at the back of the house, according to Edward E. Manfredi, a Realtor with Abbott Properties in Warwick. The East Greenwich property at 25 Laurel Wood Drive is 1 of 70 foreclosed houses Manfredi is handling for lender-owners.

“I was really surprised, really really surprised. I was blown away,” Manfredi said of the incident.

Manfredi is also selling a four-unit apartment building at 33 Halsey St., in Newport, listed at $329,900. “It’s not downtown, but it’s Newport, and real estate in Newport should be at a premium, but it’s not,” he said. “It’s not surprising, with the market the way it is,” he added.

Brian Marvelle, an agent with ReMax Premiere, in Providence, also specializes in selling foreclosed properties. Last week, he was managing 93 properties, although only 45 were active listings on the market. “It’s outrageous,” he said of the scope of the problem.

Marvelle said many properties don’t even involve evictions, because the owners just stop making payments and move out before the legal process is completed. Sometimes the foreclosure process is never even started. Some owners who are in danger of losing their houses now just transfer the deed to the bank before a foreclosure begins. This is known as a “deed in lieu of foreclosure” transfer. So some houses that are now on the market as bank- or corporate-owned properties were never actually foreclosed.

Foreclosure is the legal process by which lenders take over property from owners who are delinquent with their payments; once a foreclosure occurs, that property is known as “bank” or “corporate” owned.

Short sales, in which banks agree to accept less than what is owed on a property to allow a sale with clear title, are also showing up in listings in upscale communities. A short sale is a distress sale, but again, would not show up in foreclosure statistics

“Most of the people are just up and leaving,” Marvelle said.

One of Marvelle’s bank-owned listings is on the East Side of Providence, a 1988 Colonial at 85 Lancaster St., one block from Rochambeau Avenue. It is listed for $179,900. “It looks like they completely remodeled it,” he said of the former owners. Like many foreclosed properties, this house has pipe damage, but in this case, freezing temperatures were to blame, he said.

A corporate-owned house in Tiverton, at 129 Fairwood Drive, is an example of the wild ride house prices have taken since the housing bubble burst. Purchased in July 2006 for $438,000 by Kenneth Mollicone, who then sold it for $645,000 in November 2006 to Stewart A. Chase, the contemporary Colonial with an in-ground pool is now on the market for $420,000.

The Tiverton house is listed by Joy Riley, of Westcott Properties in Providence, another specialist in foreclosed property. Riley also has the listing for one of Barrington’s small number of bank-owned houses, a 1967 Colonial at 17 Lake Ave., in the Bay Spring section of town; the price is $249,900. The same house sold for $280,000 last May.

Another Barrington house, a restored Victorian, at 15 Lincoln Ave., was listed for more than $629,900 by Coleman Realtors at one point before foreclosure notices were published for the property last September. It was transferred to GMAC Mortgage LLC for $425,000 in October, and it sold on Dec. 28 for $373,000.

North Kingstown had only one foreclosed property for sale last week, a 1955 ranch at 81 Hornet Rd., listed at $255,000, but three properties were offered as short sales, meaning they are priced below the outstanding mortgage on the property.

Warwick’s tony Olde Buttonwoods neighborhood also has corporate-owned property on the market, including a five-bedroom Victorian at 52 Ninth Ave., listed at $589,900. Around the corner, another bank-owned Victorian at 35 Tenth Ave. is listed at $429,900. Both houses have large wraparound porches.

“It hasn’t eased at all. It’s magnified,” Manfredi said of the foreclosure situation in Rhode Island. “I’ve got better houses right now than I’ve had in a long time.”

cdunn@projo.com