Foreclosure Listings Blog

Miami foreclosure listings continued to grow in November, based on data from a California-based real estate research firm.

A total of 7,306 foreclosure actions were filed in Miami-Dade County in November, equivalent to one foreclosure for every 133 households. The total marked an increase of nearly 13 percent from November 2008, but marked a 5.6-percent drop from October.

In a chart ranking metro areas based on foreclosure rates in November, the metro area covered by Miami, Pompano Beach and Fort Lauderdale was 13th, with one foreclosure for every 136 homes or a total of 17,726 filings. The pace of foreclosure slowed down by 0.91 percent from the previous month, but stepped up by nearly 12 percent from November last year.

In Broward County, 7,099 households were hit with foreclosure postings, equivalent to one foreclosure for every 113 homes. The pace marked a 4.4-percent increase from October and a 4.3-percent jump from November last year.

In Palm Beach County, a total of 3,321 foreclosures were posted or one foreclosure for every 192 homes. The pace marked a jump of 0.87 percent from October and a substantial increase of nearly 27 percent from November last year.

Meanwhile, a real estate research consulting firm specializing in condos also released its report on Miami foreclosure listings in November, but the numbers were much lower. The firm said it based its figures on government records.

A total of 1,808 properties in Miami-Dade County were put into the foreclosure process in November, an 18-percent increase from the 1,528 units hit with foreclosure postings in November last year.

In neighboring Broward County, a total of 3,305 properties were notified of default or foreclosure, marking a 9-percent rise from 3,031 postings in November 2008. In Palm Beach County, almost 1,900 units were put into the foreclosure process, a significant jump of 24 percent from the November 2008 total of 1,526.

All in all, over 7,000 foreclosure postings occurred in the region occupied by the counties of Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Broward, marking a 15-percent jump from 6,085 foreclosures in November last year and a substantial jump of 76 percent from 3,986 filings in November 2007.

If the November foreclosure pace continues into December, the three counties will experience about 97,000 foreclosures this year, an increase from 75,000 foreclosures filed last year and a substantial increase from 33,000 filings in 2007.

Foreclosure house listings continued to grow in Connecticut in October as mediation and loan modification programs in the state failed to prevent residential mortgages from going into foreclosure.

According to housing advocates including Waterbury lawyer Eugene Melchionne, only 14 percent of the estimated 32,000 foreclosures filed during the period from July last year to October this year were put into the Connecticut mediation program, and only 8.5 percent of these were successfully rescued from actual foreclosure.

Melchionne criticized the state mediation program, saying that it did not pursue needed modifications for about 25 percent of distressed mortgages, but instead persuaded 13.5 percent of troubled homeowners to voluntarily give back their homes to the lenders and move out of the properties.

According to the Connecticut Judicial Branch, the mediation program handled 4,448 mortgage cases for the period from July 2008 to October 2009 and successfully mediated and modified 2,721 mortgages or around 61 percent.

Additionally, the program negotiated 611 short sales or 13.7 percent of the mortgages handled, helping distressed homeowners protect their credit records from being tainted with foreclosures.

With 3,332 mortgage cases negotiated or around 75 percent under the mediation program, Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell lauded the program, focusing on the 75-percent success rate in preventing mortgages from entering foreclosure house listings.

In response to criticism that the figures presented by state officials were manipulated, Robert Palmer of the Judicial Branch, explained that the data released by the branch in November did not reflect all cases being handled by mediators.

He added that more than 10,000 troubled mortgages have been handled by the program and that the 32,000 home foreclosure cases mentioned by Melchionne included a lot of cases that are not qualified for state mediation or loan modification.

According to Palmer, foreclosures arising from tax and condo fee delinquencies are not qualified under the program. Only residential units that are owner-occupied and are being used as primary residences are eligible for assistance.

Palmer also explained that the mediation program is not mandatory. What is mandatory is the notification of distressed homeowners that the state mediation program is available to help them rescue their homes from foreclosure.

In a separate report, the pace of foreclosure activity in Connecticut rose by more than eight percent in October to more than 2,300 filings, including more than 500 properties already taken back by lenders and posted in their foreclosure house listings.

House foreclosed listings are growing in Wisconsin, based on data from the Mortgage Bankers Association and from a California-based real estate research company.

The MBA reported that 11 percent of all mortgage loans in the state were in default or in foreclosure at the end of September. Although the percentage was lower than the national rate of 14 percent, the state percentage was still high, putting Wisconsin among the top 20 states in foreclosure activity in the middle months of 2009.

Russell Kashian, economics professor at the University of Wisconsin in Whitewater, said that more homeowners in Wisconsin throughout the state will lose their houses to foreclosure in December and in 2010 because of unemployment.

Kashian predicted that foreclosure filings in the fourth quarter this year will increase by 20 percent compared to the same period last year. MBA economist Jay Brinkmann said that defaults and foreclosures will continue to worsen across the country because of job losses. He added that the foreclosure situation will only improve if the job problem is addressed.

In October this year, the pace of foreclosures in Wisconsin soared by more than 128 percent from October last year to one out of 594 residential units, putting more than 4,300 units in the process of foreclosure, including 1,170 units into house foreclosed listings.

Nearly 2,000 housing units received lis pendens notices and a total of 1,158 households received notices of trustee sales. The rate of foreclosure increased by nearly 4 percent from the second quarter.

In Wisconsin, the unemployment rate declined slightly in October to 7.6 percent, the lowest level reached by the state this year. However, according to the Department of Workforce Development, the October jobless rate was still 3.2-percentage-point higher than the jobless rate in October last year.

Most job losses in October occurred in the leisure, hospitality, manufacturing and construction sectors. Non-farm jobs dropped by 129,600 during October and the total civilian workforce in the state dropped by nearly 18,000 to about 3.045 million in October.

Over the past 12 months, the state had lost almost 130,000 jobs, causing more homeowners to default on their home loans.

Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle and other state agency heads have launched various programs to help solve the problem of unemployment, but just like other states, the economic downturn has hindered businesses and government agencies from creating more jobs and from helping more homeowners save their houses from house foreclosed listings.

Atlanta foreclosure lists are still growing because of continued job losses and the lingering effects of overleveraging in the commercial property sector.
According to Georgia economist Rajeev Dhawan, the Atlanta area has lost over 200,000 jobs over the past 2 years and that jobs will continue to be lost in the coming months. He added [...]

Foreclosed listing properties are still growing in Hays County, Texas, according to a foreclosure monitoring firm based in Texas.
Based on the number of properties posted for the December auction in Hays, the pace of foreclosures this December is still above the pace in December last year. With 125 properties listed for the county-administered auction [...]

Foreclosed listing properties rose in number last year in Colorado despite significantly fewer home loans granted, according to Colorado Attorney General John Suthers.
Payday consumer lenders and mortgage lenders cut down on various types of loans, but still loan defaults increased. Delinquencies on loans made by supervised lenders rose by 23 percent while loan defaults [...]

Miami foreclosure listings are getting filled with underwater homes as more underwater homeowners deliberately default and let their homes go into foreclosure, according to a recent study conducted by credit analyst Experian and consulting firm Oliver Wyman.

Foreclosed properties listings in Plainfield, New Jersey will soon feature apartment units after six foreclosure lawsuits were filed against Connolly Properties Inc., a real estate firm that manages 1,130 apartment units in Plainfield and considered the biggest apartment operator in the city.

Finding foreclosure listings in underwater markets can result in profitable investments for individuals who can afford to wait for several years before they can sell their acquired properties at high profit levels.

Market studies find foreclosure listings are growing in African-American communities in Chicago, Illinois. Results showed that vacant, bank-owned properties in the city are concentrated in African-American dominated communities.