Florida Foreclosures Down 65%

Florida foreclosures dropped dramatically in RealtyTrac’s latest report for August. Overall foreclosure activity dropped 43 percent, and foreclosure starts – homes that received a first notice – dropped 54 percent year-to-year.

Nationally, RealtyTrac reports that national foreclosure filings – default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions – decreased 2 percent from the previous month and 34 percent year-to-year, the 35th consecutive month where foreclosure activity has decreased on an annual basis. One in every 1,019 U.S. housing units had some kind of foreclosure filing activity during the month.

Some experts say the Florida drop relates, at least in part, to a bill passed during the 2013 session of the Florida Legislature to ease the court burden of foreclosures in the state. St. Petersburg foreclosure attorney Matthew Weidner tells the Tampa Tribune that mortgage servicers and banks now have more trouble proving that they own a mortgage, which the legislation requires.

That could mean lenders are doing more prep work before filing foreclosure paperwork, which would impact the foreclosure numbers. However, RealtyTrac Vice President Daren Blomquist says it’s too early to know the impact of Florida’s new foreclosure law.

Read more at Florida Realtors 2013