Florida Number One with 120,000 Completed Foreclosures in Last 12 Months – More Than Next Three States Combined

Judicial foreclosure states continue to dominate in foreclosure inventories, claiming the top seven spots. How well is Flagler County doing?

Palm Coast, FL — September 2, 2014 – Foreclosures are the crabgrass in the lawn of the real estate market. Properties in foreclosure are often vacant and poorly maintained. Their existence depresses the value of surrounding properties. The problem is more acute in judicial foreclosure states like Florida, where the courts control the process. While many argue that the judicial process affords more protection to borrowers, the process can be excruciatingly long. But things are getting better, both nationally and locally.

A completed foreclosure is marked by the transfer of title of a foreclosed property to the lender or other successful bidder as a result of a foreclosure sale. Flagler County had 61 completed foreclosures in July.

Of 73 Flagler County properties scheduled for foreclosure sale in September, 29 were filed in 2011 or before. One of them was filed in 2007 and 5 in 2008. Only four foreclosures on the sale schedule were initiated in 2014.

Both Florida and Flagler County are making progress. For the first time in years, the number of open Flagler foreclosure cases, for all property types, has dropped below 1,000 and stands at 995 today. Of these, 515 are homesteaded residential and 325 are non-homesteaded residential. 8.1% of the current open cases were initiated prior to 2010.

CoreLogic’s recently issued July 2014 National Foreclosure Report tells how Florida stacks up against other states. In the past 12 months, Florida led the country with 120,000 completed foreclosures. That’s more than the next three states combined. Florida also ranks second (to N.J.) among states with the highest inventory of foreclosures as a percentage of mortgaged properties. The top five sates are N.J. (5.7%), Florida (4.8%), N.Y. (4.3%), Hawaii (3.0%) and Maine (2.7%).