Due to decline of Home Prices, Foreclosure Increase

Due to the continuous fall in house prices, there were more reports of Tampa foreclosures. A year-over-year drop by 6 percent could still be noticed despite a fall in the foreclosure rates in February. A year-over-year 8.5 percent fall could be seen in home prices in January.

In February, the average home sales prices across the counties of Tampa Bay fell to $120,000. In comparison with February last year, the prices fell by 6 percent in February 2010. It marked a higher rate of decrease from January and December 2009. In January this year, the average price was $125,600, which was even higher than the February median price.

According to reports of the fourth quarter of 2009, in the Tampa-Saint Petersburg metro area over 50 percent households were priced much lower than their mortgage amounts. According to a report of a research firm, in Greater Tampa, among all mortgaged homes 48.5 percent homes, which means 332,968 housing units, were distressed and 28,182 housing units were on their way to facing foreclosure notices.

Across Florida, 48 percent of the total mortgaged homes were distressed, depicting the worse foreclosure situation across the state. In percentage of underwater mortgages, behind only Nevada and Arizona, Florida was third in the rankings. In the case of underwater loans, Florida was second only after California. In February this year, as expected, Florida foreclosure homes resurged, showing the continuously rising number of Tampa foreclosure homes. Over the passed 12 months, foreclosure postings across Florida went up by 16.5 percent, and from the previous month, the rise was by 14.8 percent.

7,000 units of the over 54,000 houses that received default notices, were already entered into the bank homes foreclosure sale listings. Another 15,815 units were received foreclosure sale notices and another 31,225 units were given pending lawsuit notices. In January, after California, Florida ranked fourth in the rate of foreclosure activity. In February this year, Florida climbed up to the third spot after continuous toppers Nevada and Arizona. This shows the worsening of the foreclosure situation in the state. California went down to the fourth spot this year.

With almost 517,000 homes with repossession, default and foreclosure notices, Florida was third throughout the last year in foreclosure rates. In the Tampa-Saint Petersburg area, in 2009, almost 62,800 homeowners received serious default notices and a large percentage of homeowners received foreclosure notices for their homes. Compared to 2008 these numbers showed an increase by 17 percent.