Florida Foreclosures Continue To Zoom

Posted in Foreclosures, June 2nd, 2008 |

Foreclosures in Florida continue to zoom higher and higher. The only good news is that Arizona has overtaken Florida in foreclosure numbers. Today the Sunshine State ranks 4th in the national foreclosure race according to RealtyTrac.

Florida had 35,264 foreclosure postings in April 2008. This was an increase of 16.6% from March 2008 and 146% from what it was a year ago in the same month of April. In the nation this number is the second highest trailing behind California. The foreclosure rate is 1:242.

Across the country, foreclosures increased by 4% from March of this year and 65% from April 2007. The properties affected numbered 243,000. This is the highest number since January 2005. It calculates to 2% of all the houses in USA being in foreclosure and these are crowding into the real estate markets causing more supply of houses than demand. The worst affected states are California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona. Property taxes are falling causing loss in revenue. Municipality budgets are at high risk. Things have reached an extreme point for Vallejo in California compelling it to file bankruptcy. It has the sixth highest foreclosure rate in the country.

Of the top 10 metropolitan regions Florida and California are responsible for 9 of the worst offenders. But there are variations. Tampa-St. Petersburg region is not amongst the top ten. The listed Florida metros are Cape Coral-Fort Myers (no.5), Port St. Lucie-Fort Pierce (no.9) and Fort Lauderdale (no.10). ReatlyTrac released these numbers.

Foreclosures.com has released a different set of numbers. According to it 44,825 houses were foreclosed in April. This was an increase of 2.4% from March and 22% from the January 2008. During the first four months of this year Florida noted 162,316 postings – it being the highest in the country. In Hillsborough County between March and April the foreclosure number remained flat but it was a hike of 46% from the start of this year. In Pinnellas County the increase is by 12% from March 2008 but has decreased by 8.1% from January 2008.

The blame is being put on the sub-prime floating rates when loans were easily doled out without asking questions about income. The valuations of houses were also falsely inflated to slice out bigger loan amounts. With money flowing in there was a housing boom and people snapped up properties not only for residential purposes but also for investment and speculation. This led to the bubble bursting – those states being worst affected where there had been the most building activity.