There were more than 9,000 South Florida foreclosed homes in bank listings in the first three months of this year, according to a Florida-based real estate firm. The number marked a jump of 25 percent from bank foreclosures in the first three months last year.
In March, there were 3,707 residential units taken back by banks in South Florida, the highest monthly figure so far reached over the past three years in the region. The monthly record broken was the 3,706 posted in December last year.
Analysts contended that the number of bank owned homes could peak in South Florida in 2010 if state officials do not launch significant intervention schemes to cut down the number of foreclosed homes for sale.
On the other hand, total foreclosure postings in the first quarter this year dropped by 21 percent from the 25,000 posted in the first three months last year, posting a little lower than 20,000 filings. South Florida counties are now on pace to post around 80,000 foreclosures this year.
Meanwhile, the number of Florida foreclosed homes stepped up in February, topping all other U.S. states with an inventory of fairly maintained foreclosure homes and fixer uppers of 11.4 percent. Florida also topped charts of noncurrent mortgage loans with almost 24 percent of its active residential mortgages in delinquency.
All in all, the percentage of delinquent mortgage loans in Florida in February was 12.4 percent, above the national home loan delinquency rate of 10.2 percent. Arizona also had the same level of delinquency rate, the fourth-highest default rate in the country in February.
The other states with high mortgage default rates were California, Arizona, Illinois, Georgia, Mississippi, Nevada, Indiana, Ohio and New Jersey, which are also the states perennially occupying the top of foreclosure charts.
The states with the lowest default rates were Colorado, Alaska, Montana, Minnesota, North Dakota, Vermont, South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming and Washington.
Throughout the country, almost 8 million mortgage loans were in default or already in foreclosed status in February, a stunning increase of 26 percent from the same month last year. The one encouraging thing was that the February default rate marked a one-percent drop compared to the previous month.
One indication of the continued increase in number of Florida foreclosed homes is the popularity of online foreclosure auctions in Florida, especially auctions sites operated by counties in South Florida. These sites have been auctioning off record numbers of foreclosures online over the past several months.