272 Foreclosures Filed Per Day In South Florida

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Even after all this time, the infamous South Florida condo market remains mired in a funk. But actually the numbers are improving, slightly.

Here's the latest announcement from CondoVultures:

Lenders filed an average of 272 foreclosure actions per day in October 2009 against properties in the tricounty South Florida region, representing an eight percent year-over-year increase compared to 2008 and an 86 percent increase from 2007, according to a new report from CondoVultures.com.

The October 2009 foreclosure filings puts the tricounty South Florida region of Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties on pace for nearly 98,000 actions this year. The region was on pace for 102,000 foreclosure filings on June 30 and 99,000 on Sept. 30, according to the Condo Vultures® Foreclosure Database™.

"Foreclosure filings are up from last year but beginning to slow in volume compared to a quarter or two ago," said Peter Zalewski, a principal with the Bal Harbour, Fla.-based real estate consultancy Condo Vultures® LLC. "At one time the region looked poised to eclipse the 100,000 threshold but that possibility is beginning to wane."

Lenders filed to foreclose - also known as a notice of default or a Lis Pendens - against 75,000 properties in 2008 and 33,000 properties in 2007. At the current pace, the volume of foreclosures in the first 10 months of 2009 represents a 28 percent overall increase compared to 2008.

Leading the regional increase is Broward County, where Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, and Pompano Beach are located. Broward experienced a 21 percent year-over-year jump with 4,002 foreclosure actions filed in October 2009 compared to 3,297 actions for the same month in 2008. In October 2007, lenders filed 1,652 foreclosure actions in Broward.

Miami-Dade County, where Miami Beach, Aventura, and Coral Gables are located, realized a 10 percent increase in foreclosure actions in October 2009 on a year-over-year basis with 1,928 filings. In previous Octobers, there were 1,752 foreclosure actions filed in 2008 and 1,376 initiated in 2007.

Palm Beach County, where Boca Raton, Delray Beach, and West Palm Beach are located, realized a nine percent drop in October 2009 with 2,508 foreclosure filings compared to 2,768 actions in October 2008. In October 2007, there were 1,507 foreclosure actions initiated, according to the report.

The increased number of foreclosure filings does not equate into more properties on the resale market, according to a recent report from CondoVultures.com.

South Florida residential resale inventory dropped 1.1 percent on a week-over-week basis on Nov. 2 to 69,342 single-family houses, townhouses, and condominium units, according to the report produced using Florida Association of Realtors data.

The inventory drop comes a week after South Florida's resale inventory increased for the first time in nearly a year during the previous week.

One factor that industry watchers are monitoring is the scheduled end of the $8,000 first-time homebuyers tax credit that expires on Nov. 30.

Congress is reportedly considering extending the first-time homebuyer credit through the end of June 2010. One of the scenarios that is reportedly being considered is expanding the tax credit beyond first-time homebuyers to include all purchases by primary users.

Even without an across the board federal tax incentive, South Florida's resale inventory has plummeted by 36 percent, or 38,185 residences, in the last 49 weeks from a starting point of nearly 108,000 during the week of Nov. 24, 2008.

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