Florida, along with Texas and Michigan, leads the country in foreclosures. 24/7 Wall St. provides some analysis of the foreclosure statistics in a recent article titled “Florida, Michigan, Texas Lead in Home Foreclosures.”
Paul Ausick of 24/7 Wall St. writes, “The four states and the District of Columbia with the largest foreclosed inventory as a percentage of mortgaged properties are New Jersey (5.1%), New York (3.8%), Florida (3.1%), Hawaii (2.6%) and D.C. (2.5%). The five states with the lowest inventories of foreclosed properties are Alaska (0.3%), Nebraska (0.4%), North Dakota (0.4%), Colorado (0.4%) and Minnesota (0.5%). The five states with the highest number of completed foreclosures in the past 12 months were Florida (106,000), Michigan (49,000), Texas (33,000), Ohio (28,000) and Georgia (27,000). The five states with the fewest foreclosures in the prior 12 months through April were South Dakota (20), District of Columbia (95), North Dakota (318), West Virginia (475) and Wyoming (498)… The five metropolitan areas with the largest inventories of foreclosed properties are New York City (4.0%), Tampa (3.9%), Orlando (2.8%), Chicago (2.0%) and Baltimore (1.9%).”
The Miami Herald also digs into the subject of foreclosures in a recent article titled “‘Zombie’ foreclosures fall in South Florida.” Nicholas Nehamas of the Miami Herald writes, “The number of houses sitting empty because their owners abandoned them during a foreclosure proceeding — so-called ‘zombie’ foreclosures — fell 46 percent in South Florida over the last year. Zombie foreclosures tend to lower property values because no one is taking care of the home. The housing crisis overloaded the judicial system in Florida during the recession, leading to foreclosure cases that dragged on so long that some homeowners simply moved out. In the second quarter of 2015, there were more than 7,000 zombie foreclosures in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties — about 18 percent of all foreclosure proceedings in South Florida — according to a report released Thursday by RealtyTrac. That’s down from nearly 15,300 in the same quarter of last year.”
Are you facing wrongful foreclosure? At the law offices of Gilbert & Smallman, we will fight for your rights. Involvement in a real estate transaction means there are many documents that need to be reviewed and completed properly in order to ensure that the property is correctly transacted. In many cases, the original person who held your mortgage is not the person who is now claiming to own your note. Because of certain violations and improper transfers of title, many times the bank can’t prove they own your note, and you can potentially beat the bank and detach the note from the property. A lot of this depends on the judge and jurisdiction. Through challenging the standing of the Plaintiff, many foreclosure defense lawyers have been successful in holding the banks off for an extended period of time, and in the process allowing the homeowner to refinance, modify their loan, or conduct a short sale.
Don’t let the bank get the best of you. Contact the law offices of Gilbert & Smallman for a consultation.
