It's no secret that the housing market in Southern Florida is bleak, but a new report from ""Condovultures.com"":http://www.condovultures.com/index.php reveals that things are looking up for the Sunshine State.
[IMAGE]The Bal Harbour, Florida based Condo Vultures, LLC report said lenders filed foreclosure actions worth $3.5 billion in outstanding loans in South Florida in Q3, which is a 38 percent decrease compared to Q3 in 2009, when lenders initiated $5.7 billion in foreclosure filings in the same area.
""If things continue on the same path, it looks as if 2009 could turn out to be the worst year for foreclosures in South Florida based on total actions initiated and the overall dollar amount in default, said Peter Zalewski, a principal with the real estate consultancy group in a press release.
[COLUMN_BREAK]He continued, ""The flip side is, the new foreclosure actions being filed by lenders today are for larger average loan amounts. This could be a sign of the exotic loans beginning to reset.""
Also revealed in the study are reports that lenders filed an average of 150 foreclosure actions per day in Q3, down 42 percent from 2009's 259 filings per day during Q3.
For the year, Southern Florida filings are at 49,000 filings total, an average of 179 filings per day, down 36 percent from the 279 per day that were filed last year from January to September 2009.
At this rate, lenders are projected to file fewer than 65,000 foreclosure actions this year, which would be the lowest annual total since 2007. In 2009, there were 98,000 foreclosure filings filed.
""New foreclosure filings are slowing dramatically in South Florida,"" said Zalewski. ""Foreclosure actions … are still a significant problem for the region but the housing epidemic appears to be losing some momentum. The decrease in filings raises a fundamental question of whether fewer borrowers are defaulting on their mortgages or whether lenders are seeking other options besides the foreclosure process to deal with nonperforming residential loans.""
Zalewski added, ""We are leaning toward the latter to explain the decrease in new foreclosure filings in South Florida.""