According to the Florida Association of Realtors US foreclosures activity is up 27% in October.
IRVINE, Calif. – Nov. 10, 2016 – ATTOM Data Solutions’ October 2016 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report found a surprising month-to-month increase in U.S. foreclosures. And while Florida continues to improve in the state-by-state rankings – it came in at No. 6 in October – Daren Blomquist, senior vice president at ATTOM Data Solutions, thinks foreclosures could again rise in the Sunshine State.
In Florida, one out of every 895 housing units is somewhere in the foreclosure process. That’s still more at-risk homes that the national foreclosure rate: one in every 1,258 U.S. housing units. In New Jersey, the top U.S. foreclosure state, one in every 564 housing units is in some state of foreclosure.
“We would expect to see an increase in Florida foreclosure activity in the coming months given the October ruling by the state supreme court that allows lenders to re-file a foreclosure action against a homeowner in default, even if a previous foreclosure case against that homeowner was dismissed and that original foreclosure case was filed more than five years ago – outside the state’s statute of limitations for foreclosure,” Blomquist said.
An ATTOM interactive map of Florida is posted online, displaying the total number of foreclosures and for-sale homes by county.
Other states with foreclosure rates ranking among the top 10 were Nevada (one in every 826 housing units with a foreclosure filing during the month), Ohio (one in every 930 housing units), Pennsylvania (one in every 1,018 housing units) and Georgia (one in every 1,028 housing units).
While foreclosures spiked month-to-month in October, they continued to drop in ATTOM’s year-to-year comparison, and it was the 13th consecutive month where U.S. foreclosure activity decreased on a year-over-year basis. However, the month-to-month increase was the biggest since August 2007.
Blomquist says that the latest foreclosure increase isn’t tied to the Great Recession.
“While some states are still slogging through the remnants of the last housing crisis, the foreclosure activity increases in states such as Arizona, Colorado and Georgia are more heavily tied to loans originated since 2009,” says Blomquist. “The increase in October isn’t enough evidence to indicate a new foreclosure crisis emerging in these states, but it certainly demonstrates that this housing recovery is not completely devoid of risk.”
Blomquist says October’s uptick in foreclosures largely comes from mortgage originated as the U.S. recovered from the recession.
“The loans … that appear to be most susceptible to foreclosure are those such as FHA and VA with low downpayments,” Blomquist says. “Our data shows FHA and VA loans combined represent 49 percent of all active foreclosure inventory for loans originated in the seven years ending in 2015. By comparison, FHA and VA loans only represent 12 percent of all active foreclosure inventory among loans originated in the previous seven-year period, from 2002 to 2008.”
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