Florida Mortgage Foreclosures: An Equal Opportunity Crisis
Florida mortgage foreclosures are still big news. They have been for some time.
In 2009, Florida homeowners experienced one of the worst foreclosure rates in the entire nation. The burst of the housing bubble left many neighborhoods with more foreclosure signs than street signs.
Many analysts predicted that the worst was over, but in 2010, they were proven wrong. Florida’s 18 percent foreclosure rate was the second highest in the country, behind only Nevada.
Surely things had to begin improving soon, right? In fact, the slide continued. In 2011, 25 percent of the foreclosures in the country happened in Florida. December 2011 saw the states foreclosure average balloon to 1 in every 360 homes.
Florida Mortgage Foreclosures vs. the National Average
The national foreclosure average was about 1 in 634 homeowners.
The bad news seems to be pretty well spread out among Gulf Coast counties and inland areas. Manatee County’s foreclosure rate was 1 in 212 while North Port came in at 1 in 151, Riverview came in at 1in 150 and Lehigh Acres reached the incredible rate of 1 in 96.
One of the most surprising facets of the Florida mortgage foreclosure crisis has been it’s lack of prejudice based on socioeconomic status. The super-rich areas of Fisher Island and Rosemary Beach led a recent Forbes study looking into the foreclosure rates in the state. Fisher Island had the number one spot with a foreclosure rate of 20.5 percent and Rosemary Beach had a rate of 9.9 percent.
Somehow Collier County, which is home to the popular tourist destination Naples, has recently been able to withstand the hurricane of foreclosures that has blown through the rest of the state. The county has remained stable in the recent months, partly because it experienced a mass exodus of homeowners early on in the recession.
As of March 2011, nearly a third of the county’s homes were vacant.
Many analysts believe the nation will begin recovering from the crisis in the next 3-4 years and point to the declining level of late loans as evidence that things are on the mend. Florida however, is expected to experience a slow recovery from the foreclosures because of its high number of delinquent Florida mortgage loans and foreclosures.
About the Author
Ryan is a guest blogger who writes about real estate in Austin, Texas
Florida still accounts for nearly 7 percent of the nation’s foreclosures. However, foreclosure activity continues to drop nationwide.