Foreclosures improve nationally/Tampa fails to get message

A bit of good news released Monday.....

The nation’s foreclosure hemorrhage slowed a bit last month. Lenders repossessed 74,570 homes following foreclosure in April, down more than 5% from March. April pre-foreclosures dropped 7.52% from March too, according to California-based ForeclosureS.coms.

“The sky isn’t falling, and the bottom of the housing market is in sight,” says Alexis McGee, foreclosure information expert, educator, and president of ForeclosureS.com.

Followed by a more sober local reality courtesy of the same company....

1. Pinellas County: 5,524 preforeclosures so far this year, 1.33 percent of households
2. Hillsborough County: 9,074 preforeclosures so far this year, 2.32 percent of households
3. Pasco County: 4,936 preforeclosures so far this year, 3.34 percent of households
4. Hernando County: 1,940 preforeclosures so far this year, 3.5 percent of households

Florida as whole has had 162,316 preforeclosure filings, or 2.56 percent of households, so Pinellas and Hillsborough are below the state average and Pasco and Hernando are higher than average.

Conclusions? The nation will heal before Florida does. We had more foreclosure filings than California, though it has about twice our population, according to foreclosures.com.

Also, the higher rates of mortgage default in the newer, northern suburbs highlight once again how speculative over-building caused a lot of our mess.

Here's the press release from the company

Comments

[Fuzzy Bear]

Hillsborough County: 9,074 preforeclosures so far this year, 2.32 percent of households

That is consistant with what I have been seeing in the hidden inventory and in many of the neighborhoods, both new and existing.

[Chris]

I honestly don't see why "lis pendens" filings are given as much weight as they are given by many.

If you look at the true number of bank owned properties (REO), it's not anywhere near as big of a number as many want people to think it is.

[Fuzzy Bear]

I honestly don't see why "lis pendens" filings are given as much weight as they are given by many.

It is a good indicator of future activity and the current state of the homeowner/consumer. It also shows that the largest arm resets from 2006 and 2007 are in their beginning phase and having a negative impact on the consumer/homeowner.

[Chris]

I'm not sure of that, Fuzzy Bear. My understanding is that 90%+ of all foreclosure actions end up being settled before they actually are foreclosed on.

That's all I was saying. I agree that it can show a trend, but if people think that 9,000+ number will lead to 9,000 vacant REO properties, they are not aware of the real truth.

[Tino]

Data point 1: Perhaps in the past, but show up at the daily foreclosure auctions at the Hillsborough courthouse and you will see a different picture. This week is averaging 20-25 foreclosed properties a day being sold, and almost every one that I saw received no bids and went back to the bank.

Data point 2: In my community of 250 condos, we would threaten foreclosure on a couple of units per year, and they would always pay up. This year we are moving to foreclose on 11 units so far. This backlog of foreclosures is going to take a long time to clear out.

[Eddie Carr]

What's great about having so many pre-foreclosures out there is that it presents an incredible opportunity for investors and property owners alike. Often times a deal is made with the property owner so it doesn't actually result in a foreclosure. If you can find those pre-foreclosure situations and work out a deal with the property owner or bank then you can get into a discounted property and potentially make some money while also helping the property owner avoid foreclosure. Not a bad gig. I recently found a great Google Maps mashup that lists foreclosure properties and real estate in Florida (http://www.propertymaps.com/cloud/mls/usa/florida). It's been a great help in finding these distressed properties and details about them.