Article Courtesy of The Orlando
Sentinel
By Mary Shanklin
Published
August 1, 2015
"We still see a lot of bank-owned properties," said
Clermont real-estate broker Debbie Payne. "There are still a lot of
homeowners who walked off, and you can't find them."
She cited a Clermont lakefront home that had been worth $2.4 million a
few years ago, but the owners were incarcerated, and the bank was unable
to serve them foreclosure papers. The house has been totally vandalized
and is worth about $550,000, she added.
Andy Insua, who oversees mortgage banking for Fifth Third Bank
throughout Florida, said that home prices for the Orlando area and
performance of new home loans are "encouraging." But the Central Florida
region was hit so hard during the downturn that recovery is protracted,
he added.
"Big wounds take longer to heal," he said Thursday. "While there has
been some marked improvement in the last three years, we still need more
time to fully recover in this market."
Orlando isn't alone. Of the country's top 10 metropolitan areas for
foreclosures, eight are in the Sunshine State: Tampa, second; Polk
County, third; Jacksonville, fourth; Ocala, fifth; Miami, sixth. And
trailing Orlando was Fort Walton Beach, 10th.
At one time, California dominated with the greatest number of
foreclosures for any state. But Florida had almost double the
foreclosure filings of the West Coast state from January through June.
RealtyTrac Vice President Daren Blomquist said the foreclosure filings
have been dropping significantly in Florida for the last few years — but
"it came from such a high level that it's still worse in Florida than in
any other state."
By the end of the year, he added, New Jersey will likely replace Florida
as the country's foreclosure king.
In addition to its quantity of foreclosure activity in the courts,
Florida also has one of the country's longest timelines to process the
home repossessions. States with the longest foreclosure timelines were
New Jersey, 1,206 days; Hawaii, 1,060 days; Montana, 1,028; New York,
1,000 days; and Florida, 989 days.
Payne said she doesn't look for the area's foreclosure morass to end
anytime soon.
When her company, Re/Max Navigator, mails out marketing materials to
homeowners in her area, about one in 30 goes to the bank that has title
to the property.
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