The Wilmoth Group Blog

RealtyTrac released a little more than just their monthly tracking yesterday.  Also included were year to date statistics.  If you read my posts you know I do not spend a lot of time on the monthly data results as I find them to be for too narrow of a window.  When provided with six months of data,  I think some conclusions can be reached.

According to RealtyTrac, year to date, Cape Coral-Ft. Myers is the number two foreclosure market in the country.  Making its debut in the top ten, Orlando has now   in at number 8.  The Miami area has actually dropped a few notches to come in at #10.

Foreclosure activity in the Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., metro area decreased nearly 22 percent from the previous six months and was down nearly 30 percent from the first half of 2009, but the metro area still documented the nation’s second highest metro foreclosure rate — 4.98 percent of its housing units (one in 20) received a foreclosure filing during the six-month period.

Other Florida cities in the top 10 foreclosure rates  were Orlando-Kissimmee at No. 8 (4.15 percent of housing units) and Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach at No. 10 (3.89 percent).

It is also interesting to distinguish these foreclosure rates (% of total housing stock) versus actual foreclosure totals.  When foreclosure totals are considered large metropolitan areas take over the rankings.  For instance, the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale-Pompano Beach metropolitan area is 10th year to date in foreclosure rates, but actually leads the nation in total foreclosures with 94,466 properties receiving a notice during the first six months of 2010.   This total rate beats out the Los Angeles metropolitan area in second place with 93,263 filings.

The big picture from this news is foreclosure filings are back on the upswing with 154 of the 206 metropoliatan markets in the USA, with populations in excess of 200,000, posting year over year increases in activity.  These widespread increases occurred while activity actually decreased in nine of the 10 areas with the highest rates. 

“While we’re seeing early signs that foreclosure activity may have peaked in some of the hardest-hit markets, foreclosures continued to rise in three-quarters of the nation’s metropolitan areas in the first half of the year,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “The fragile stability achieved in many local housing markets hinges on improvements in the underlying economy, specifically job growth. If unemployment remains persistently high and foreclosure prevention efforts only delay the inevitable, then we could continue to see increased foreclosure activity and a corresponding weakness in home prices in many metro areas.”