Archive for the ‘Cape Coral’ Category

Cape Coral/Ft. Myers and Orlando Top Foreclosure List

Thursday, July 29th, 2010

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.”

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Posted in Cape Coral, Default, Lee County, News and Statistics, Orlando, RealtyTrac, Statistics | No Comments »

City of Cape Coral FL Registration and Maintenance of Abandoned Properties Program

Wednesday, March 18th, 2009

The following release just issued by the Realtor Association of Fort Myers and the Beach.  We are members of this board and will be taking the appropriate actions to inform lenders of these new responsibilities, and insure compliance in order to avoid these large fines.    The actual ordinance can be downloaded and read here.  An additional clarification regarding the definition of eligible properties is available here   JWW

The City of Cape Coral is facing challenges with current levels of foreclosure activity as the City’s responsibilities have grown beyond mowing of distressed properties to include board-ups, securing pools, additional research, and increased workload with other agencies and departments to diminish the negative impact of vacant properties on surrounding neighborhoods and the community as a whole.

As homes in the foreclosure process may sit vacant and unmaintained for extended periods of time, these properties can discourage potential buyers of adjacent properties and can devalue neighboring homes. This impact destabilizes neighborhoods and has lead to neighborhood blight. Thus, on March 1, 2009, the City began enforcing the Abandoned Real Property ORD 139-08.  This ordinance is directed at the maintenance of abandoned properties that are in foreclosure with the intent to address those properties that have been abandoned and are going through the foreclosure process, or those properties that do not have a responsible party maintaining them.

If a property is found to be abandoned, the program requires mortgage lenders to register the property within 10 days with the Director of Community Development, or the Director’s designee, on forms provided by the City. A separate registration is required for each vacant property and an annual registration fee in the amount of $150.00 per property must accompany the registration form.  If the lender does not register the abandoned property, a fine of $1,000 per day may be placed against the property.

To ensure that the property is maintained, if the lender must hire a property management company to inspect the property on a bi-weekly basis to verify compliance with the Code requirements. The property management company will be asked to provide a copy of the inspection reports to the code enforcement division.  The City believes that an accessible, local, responsible party will help deter any potential deterioration of the property and thus preserve the neighborhood.

Failure of the mortgagee or property owner of record to properly maintain the property may result in a violation of the City Code and the City may take the necessary action to ensure compliance.

The City is currently working to update the language of ORD 139-08 to clarify that its intent is to address abandoned properties that are in foreclosure; currently, the language is ambiguous and could be interpreted to include all properties that are in default but may be occupied.

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Posted in Cape Coral, REO, Vacant Homes | No Comments »