Foreclosures Haunt the Treasure Coast Regions of Florida

Posted on August 26, 2008
Filed Under Foreclosure Homes |

Like the Spanish galleons of yore that used to raid the area, foreclosures today are haunting the treasure coast regions of Florida. The term Treasure Coast is used to refer to the land stretching from Hobe Sound to Sebastian in the north. It includes the coastal counties of Indian River, St. Lucie and Martin. Okeechobee is also sometimes bracketed in the Treasure Coast group.

Foreclosures are continuing to increase at a galloping pace. Comparing July 2007 to July 2008 it is seen that the foreclosures jumped in Brevard County from 557 to 958, in Indian River from 66 to 235, in Martin from 70 to 192, in Palm Beach from 1,557 to 3,494 and in Saint Lucie from 296 to 1,184. RealtyTrac has recently released these figures. In Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River there are 1,611 foreclosed units compared to 432 in the previous year. St. Lucie had the highest number of foreclosures with 1,184 houses being in some stage of foreclosure as against 296 houses in July 2007. Martin County recorded the lowest foreclosure numbers with an increase from 70 to 192. In July there were 235 foreclosures in Indian River County. Last year there were only 66 foreclosures.

James Saccacio CEO of RealtyTrac said that staggering rise in bank repossessions coupled with slow pace of sales has resulted in a piling up of the number of unsold units that had been repossessed by the banks. He said “RealtyTrac now has more than three quarters of a million properties in its active REO data base, a number that represents approximately 17% of the inventory of existing homes for sale reported in June by the National Association of Realtors.”

Florida continued to remain one of the top three rankers in the national foreclosure race sharing the dubious honours with California and Ohio. Florida ranked second with foreclosure activity increasing in July by 14% from June and by 139% from July of the previous year, 2007. Florida recorded the second highest number of foreclosure postings counting to 45,884. These units were in some stage of foreclosure. On a year-over-year count the repossessions by the banks increased by 678%. The auction notice increased by 180% and the default warnings shot up by 100%.

RealtyTrac based in California reports in detail on the foreclosure activity across the country and also compares and analyzes the same.