Yesterday, according to RealtyTrac Homes and condominiums in some stage of foreclosure accounted for 42% of all Broward County sales in the second quarter, which is a slight increase from a year ago.
In Palm Beach County, 37% of all home and condo sales in April, May and June were in the foreclosure process, up from 25% during the same period last year.
Nationally, foreclosures accounted for 31% of all sales. In 2005, at the height of the housing boom, the share was only about 1%.
Properties in some stage of foreclosure are those in default, scheduled for auction or bank-owned, according to RealtyTrac, an Irvine, Calif.-based foreclosure listing firm.
The RealtyTrac figures also show an increase in the number of sales before they end up in foreclosure. In many cases, lenders are agreeing to short sales – taking less for the home than the mortgage is worth.
“Lenders are being more accommodating toward short sales and seeing that as a better alternative to foreclosing on a property,” said Daren Blomquist, a spokesman for RealtyTrac.
Blomquist described the judicial foreclosure process in Florida and other states as “messy” and said banks increasingly are trying to avoid that. Still, it takes an average of 410 days to complete a short sale in Florida, according to RealtyTrac.
The average price of a foreclosure-related sale in Broward was $125,466, according to RealtyTrac. The average discount compared with a home not in the foreclosure process was 25%.
In Palm Beach County, the average price was $116,642, and the average discount was 38%.
Broward led the state with 4,565 sales of properties in the foreclosure process during the second quarter. Miami-Dade County was second with 4,397, and Palm Beach County was third at 3,253.
Despite the large numbers of distressed home sales, fewer homes are coming on the market.
“That’s a good indicator that we’re bumping along the bottom,” said Richard Barkett, chief executive of the Realtor Association of Greater Fort Lauderdale.
Story by By Paul Owers | Sun Sentinal
