Florida metro areas led the state trend in decreasing foreclosure rates for the first half of 2011, but the housing crisis is far from over.
According to a report released Thursday by RealtyTrac, a California-based company that tracks foreclosed properties, the number of Florida cities with foreclosure rates in the top 20 nationwide for January through June was one, down from nine for the same period last year.
Cape Coral-Fort Myers foreclosure rate of one in every 42 housing units for the first half of 2011 was good for 12th place among metro areas nationwide, a decrease of 52 percent from last year. The Southwest Florida area was ranked second in the first half of 2010.
The statewide foreclosure rate for the first six months of the year was one in every 78 housing units, a decline of 60 percent from last year.
Lower foreclosure rates, however, are signaling a delay in the foreclosure process, rather than a healing of a housing market still struggling to recover from the burst of the housing bubble in 2008.
Foreclosure activity continued to slow in the first half of 2011, especially in the most foreclosure-saturated markets and in markets where the judicial foreclosure process is used, said James Saccacio, CEO of RealtyTrac.
Florida does not have a nonjudicial procedure for foreclosures as some other states do, and the sharp rise in foreclosures stemming from the housing bust has clogged courtrooms, extending the time it takes for a case to make it through the system.
The robo-signing controversy of last year, in which law firms hired by lenders rushed through shoddy paperwork, cast doubt on the ownership of some properties involved in the foreclosure process. In response, banks imposed a moratorium on foreclosures for a short period, but are delaying foreclosure proceedings, adding to the lag.
In a release earlier this month, Saccacio stated that approximately 1 million homes across the country that should be foreclosed upon this year will be delayed until 2012 or later.
These dramatic decreases indicate the foreclosure pipeline continues to be clogged in many local marketsacross the country, sometimes by a glut of already-foreclosed properties that are not selling quickly, sometimes by a mountain of improperly filed foreclosures that are blocking the inflow of new foreclosure filings -- and sometimes by both, Saccacio said.
The Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach and Orlando-Kissimmee metro areas were the only other Florida metros in the top 40. Miamis foreclosure activity decreased 60 percent from last year, and it dipped from 10th to 30th in the rankings with a rate of one in every 65 housing units. Orlandos rate of one in every 71 housing units was good for 36th among metro areas, dropping from eighth for the first half of 2010.
Heres how Floridas metro areas fared for the first six months of 2011:
12 -- Cape Coral-Fort Myers; one in 42 housing units foreclosure rate; 52 percent drop from 2010; ranked second for same period last year.
30 -- Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach; one in 65 rate; 60 percent decrease; ranked 10th last year.
36 -- Orlando-Kissimmee; one in 71 rate; 66 percent decrease; ranked eighth last year.
41 -- Port St. Lucie; one in 77 rate; 57 percent decrease; ranked 16th last year.
43 -- Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach; one in 80 rate; 59 percent decrease; ranked 15th last year.
45 -- Ocala; one in 82 rate; 53 percent decrease; ranked 24th last year.
46 -- Jacksonville; one in 82 rate; 52 percent decrease; ranked 26th last year.
52 -- Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater; one in 86 rate, 57 percent decrease; ranked 20th last year.
70 -- Naples-Marco Island; one in 105 rate; 70 percent decrease; ranked 13th last year.
74 -- Lakeland; one in 106 rate; 67 percent decrease; ranked 17th last year.
85 -- Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville; one in 127 rate; 72 percent decrease; ranked 18th last year.
103 -- Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent; one in 143 rate; 58 percent decrease; ranked 47th last year.
112 -- Gainesville; one in 155 rate; 48 percent decrease; ranked 69th last year.
125 -- Tallahassee; one in 168 rate; 43 percent decrease; ranked 88th last year.
Reach Gray Rohrer at grohrer@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
