The RealtyTrac® U.S. Foreclosure Market Report™ for October 2013 and the CoreLogic October National Foreclosure Report have been released to the public with some interesting insights about the real estate market today. What can they tell homeowners and real estate investors about South Florida real estate and our Florida foreclosure bust?
South Florida’s sunny beachfront real estate markets haven’t escaped from the shadow of Florida Foreclosures – yet.
The Florida Foreclosure Numbers for 2013
These two nationally respected industry foreclosure reports provide details on the Florida real estate industry and how well Florida is recovering from the Florida Foreclosure Crisis (or not). Here’s what they are reporting:
1. RealtyTrac’s Foreclosure Market Report
RealtyTrac’s Foreclosure Market Report shows that there was a 2% increase in the number of foreclosure filings nationwide in October, as compared to the previous month of September 2013. RealtyTrac’s report defines “foreclosure filings” as anything from the first default notice to scheduled auctions and repossessions. Good news from the report: comparing October 2013 to October 2012 showed a 28% drop in foreclosure filings across the country.
Florida, Nevada and Maryland were the Top 3 in state foreclosure rates according to the RealtyTrac statistics. This brought Florida back to Number 1 in the country for foreclosure filings according to RealtyTrac after dropping to the number 2 spot in August and September.
“The backlog of delayed judicial foreclosures continues to make its way through the pipeline, with many of these properties now being scheduled for the public auction after starting the foreclosure process last year or earlier this year,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. “Lenders are likely moving these properties more rapidly to the public auction given that there is strong demand from institutional buy-to-rent investors at the auction and that rising home prices mean more of the loan losses can be recouped, either by selling to an investor at the auction or by repossessing the property and reselling as bank owned.”
From the RealtyTrac® U.S. Foreclosure Market Report™ report:
- Florida’s foreclosure filing activity in October 2013 was up 22% over September 2013
- Florida saw a 36% month-over-month increase in foreclosure starts
- Florida had 26,962 foreclosure filings in October 2013
- In October 2013, 1 in every 332 housing units was involved in the Florida judicial foreclosure process.
- Florida was one of the top 10 states with the biggest jump in scheduled judicial foreclosure auctions as Florida was up by 32%.
- Foreclosure starts were up from the previous month in 22 states with only Colorado (up 124%) having more than Florida (up 36%).
- Florida had the highest foreclosure rate in the country in October 2013, followed by Nevada, Maryland, Ohio and Illinois.
- The highest foreclosure rates in the country’s biggest metro areas had Florida cities in the top two spots with Miami and Tampa (beating out Chicago, Baltimore and Riverside-San Bernardino on the list).
- Miami was up 7% percent in foreclosure filings in October 2013.
2. CoreLogic’s October National Foreclosure Report
CoreLogic’s October National Foreclosure Report studied completed foreclosures and the “foreclosure inventory” across the country for a one year period, comparing October 2013 with October 2012. Their research found that there were less completed foreclosures in the U.S. in October 2013 (48,000) as compared to October 2012 (68,000), representing a 30% drop in completed foreclosures this year than last.
CoreLogic’s report finds approximately 879,000 homes involved in the foreclosure process in October 2013, which they label as the nation’s “foreclosure inventory.” This is a big drop since there were an estimated 1.3 million homes in the nation’s foreclosure inventory in October 2012 – that’s a drop of 31%.
“The scourge of an elevated foreclosure inventory is easing. In October, every state posted a year-over-year decline in completed foreclosures, which is positive news,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “Additionally, the rate of serious delinquencies, which fell more than 25 percent year over year, is at the lowest level in nearly five years, which is great news as we head into a new year.”
Regarding Florida, CoreLogic reported:
- Florida had the highest number of completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending in October 2013 with 115,000 completed judicial foreclosures. This was followed by Michigan (50,000), California (46,000), Texas (43,000) and Georgia (39,000). CoreLogic points out that these five states account for almost half of all completed foreclosures nationally.
- Florida also had the highest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes with 7.1% followed by New Jersey (6.7 percent), New York (4.9 percent), Maine (3.8 percent) and Connecticut (3.7 percent).
Comparing the Two Reports: RealtyTrac and CoreLogic
Relying upon the summary provided by CoreLogic and not its full report (which is not available online), a complete comparison cannot be provided here between these two reports. However, what can be seen in an overview of the two studies is that Florida remains the state that has been hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis and Florida is still fighting its way back from that market injury.
Many homes and many Florida home owners are still dealing with the realities of losing their homes or condos in a Florida judicial foreclosure proceeding — and having to deal with the realities of a deficiency liability, as well.
The numbers here may be better than years past, but Florida isn’t out of the Danger Zone yet, foreclosure-wise, but we’re getting better.
Do you have questions or comments? Then please feel free to Chat with Larry in the comments below, at info@hallandalelaw.com, or (954) 458-8655. If you have a specific or personal situation, please call or email Larry because he can’t answer specific fact questions in general comments.
