Foreclosures Continue To Rise In Florida

November 5th, 2007

Making its mark among the top states in the country for foreclosure, Florida foreclosures have shot up more than 50 percent as compared to the last quarter.

According to a report released by RealtyTrac, for every ninety-five homes, there has been a foreclosure recorded in the state, making Florida the state with the third highest foreclosure filings close on the heels of Nevada and California. This third quarter has shown a figure of 86,400 foreclosures for nearly 61,000 properties. This is more than twice the foreclosure figures as reported during the same period last year in 2006, said officials from RealtyTrac.

James J. Saccacio, chief executive of this Florida based foreclosure marketing firm, stated in a press release that the two months where foreclosure filings were at their peak were August and September, and this is ever since RealtyTrac began documenting real estate figures in the first quarter of 2005,

Foreclosures take place when a borrower is unable to meet his or her monthly mortgage payments and default, causing the lender to repossess the home, and put it up for foreclosure. Sub-prime or predatory lending has been attributed as being one of the major causes of foreclosures in the country. Many states have reported astoundingly high rates of foreclosures in this year.

“Although not all areas are being hit as hard as others, the rise in foreclosures is quite widespread, with 45 out of the 50 states documenting year-over-year increases in the third quarter,” said James J. Saccacio. “Given the number of loans due to reset through the middle of 2008 and the continuing weakness in home sales, we would expect foreclosure activity to remain high and even increase over the next year in many markets” he added.

The highest foreclosures were in Nevada in the third quarter, which had 16,817 foreclosure filings for 12,982 properties, which made it a foreclosure filing for every 61 homes. Overall, California was at the top, with more than 148,000 foreclosure filings for 94,772 properties, but came in second because these figures represent a foreclosure filing for every 88 homes.

Michigan, Ohio, Colorado, Arizona, Georgia, Indiana and Texas rounded off the top ten states in the country. Vermont held the record for the best foreclosure rate, and had only 25 filings, which turned out to be just one foreclosure filing for every 12,294 homes. Second was South Dakota, which had a filing for every 4,639 households, even as North Dakota came in with a foreclosure filing for every 4,288 homes.