Florida ranks second highest state for foreclosure
Miami, Florida (PRWEB) January 22, 2016 -- According to the Year-End 2015 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report™ released by RealtyTrac®,
foreclosure filings have declined in the US over the past year. However, Florida still ranks as the second highest state for foreclosures in the nation, with a rate of 1.77, behind New Jersey (1.9) and before Maryland (1.60), Nevada (1.40), and Illinois (1.26).
On a regional level, South Florida had one foreclosure filing for every 51 homes, behind Atlantic City, New Jersey, Tampa, and Jacksonville. The report claims there were 48,830 homes in South Florida with a foreclosure filing last year — the lowest since 2006.
“Florida saw a decrease in foreclosure activity by more than 28 percent in 2015,” says Miami-Dade foreclosure attorney, Dillon Graham. “These numbers are very encouraging, but there are still over 48,800 open cases sitting in state court, indicating the state has plenty of cleanup to do before it reaches a steady level of activity.”
Nationwide, there were 1,083,572 foreclosure filings, default notices, scheduled auctions, and bank repossessions — down 3 percent from 2014, and down 62 percent from the peak in 2010. 2015 saw the lowest annual total of foreclosure filings since 2006, when there were 717,522.
The report also showed 103,373 new nationwide foreclosure filings for the month of December,
down 1 percent from November and down 9 percent from a year ago.
“As a nation, there’s a lot of optimism about the market recovering from a nine-year low. The recent report claims many markets have returned to normalcy, but local economic problems are still plaguing certain metro areas, making these regions the exception,” says Graham.
Only four metropolitan areas in all of the US posted higher foreclosure rates during 2015. Three of those cities were Jacksonville, Tampa, and Miami.
Despite the remnant of homes sitting in foreclosure, many believe that now is the time to purchase a home because interest rates are still low enough, and our economy is showing sings of growth. Heightened demand and a shortage of affordable housing will likely cause another hike in prices.
“Foreclosure home filings in South Florida have dropped dramatically since the crisis, but the tri-county area still remains one of the biggest offenders in the nation. In the midst of recovery, there’s still much progress to be made,” says Dillon Graham.
Laura Ure, Keenability, +1 5612139753, [email protected]
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