Foreclosure filings were reported on 18,760 Florida properties in February, a 13 percent decrease from the previous month, but this might only be temporary, as the industry is in the midst of a major overhaul that has severely restricted its capacity to process foreclosures, a national foreclosure tracking firm reported on Thursday.
The Irvine, California-based RealtyTrac said, while Florida foreclosure activity was down 65 percent from February 2010 and hit a 46-month low last month, from a peak of 64,588 in April 2009, it was still the nation’s second highest state with foreclosure filings for February 2011.
For the second month in a row, no Florida cities posted foreclosure rates in the top 20 among U.S. metropolitan areas with a population of 200,000 or more. That was in contrast to 2010, when the state accounted for nine of the top 20 metro foreclosure rates, RealtyTrac said.
Nevada posted the nation’s highest state foreclosure rate for the 50th straight month in February–one in every 119 Nevada housing units had a foreclosure filing during the month of February–despite a 22 percent decrease in foreclosure activity from the previous month. Arizona followed by California posted the second and third highest state foreclosure rate in February. Ten states account for more than 70 percent of the national total foreclosure activity, including Florida.
Nationwide, 225,101 U.S. properties had a foreclosure filing in month of February 2011, a 14 percent decrease from the previous month and a 27 percent decrease from February 2010 — the biggest year-over-year decrease since RealtyTrac began issuing its report in 2005. The report also shows one in every 577 U.S. housing units with a foreclosure filing during the month.
