Considering the national banking nightmare brought on by homeowners skipping their mortgage payments, I was curious how many problem real estate loans three of the biggest troubled lenders had in the Tampa Bay area.

Here's the guidelines I used. I decided to count "Lis Pendens" cases, typically how a bank initiates a lawsuit against a late-paying property owner. Not all such cases end in the confiscation of a house, but filing a Lis Pendens is a sign a loan hasn't been paid, sometimes for many months running. I started my Lis Pendens count on January 1, 2006, a rough marker for when the housing slump began.

So here's the extent of Washington Mutual, Countrywide and Wachovia's involvement in lis pendens cases in Pinellas, Pasco and Hillsborough counties the past 2 1/2 years:

• Washington Mutual: 2,077
• Countrywide: 3,200*
• Wachovia: 1,540

That's nearly 7,000 shaky home loans from just 3 lenders. Washington Mutual was bought last week by JP Morgan Chase, the former Chase Manhattan Bank. Countrywide was absorbed earlier this year by Bank of America. Wachovia is the latest buy-out victim, acquired today by Citigroup.

*Countrywide's number is approximate, and probably an undercount, since court records in Pasco wouldn't tabulate higher than 500.