While foreclosure actions on the Treasure Coast continued to fall during the first quarter of this year from the last quarter of 2008, the numbers for March indicate a resurgence.

Foreclosure actions — default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions — were down 18.5 percent in Indian River County, 3.3 percent in St. Lucie County and up 1.1 percent in Martin County in the first quarter compared with the last quarter of 2008, according to U.S. Foreclosure Market Report released today by RealtyTrac (realtytrac.com). Those first-quarter numbers were still up 40 percent to 68 percent from a year ago.

But foreclosure actions in March rose 71 percent from February in Indian River County and 48 percent in St. Lucie County, though they declined 6 percent in Martin County.

Okeechobee County did not follow the trend. Foreclosure actions there in the first quarter were up almost 18 percent from the previous quarter and more than 92 percent from a year ago.

Daren Blomquist, a spokesman for California-based RealtyTrac, said the fluctuations were mostly due to the moratorium on foreclosures in Florida ended after January.

But the numbers also are inflated because the foreclosure process is taking longer, Blomquist said. “Lenders are tending to take longer (to foreclose), partly because they are overwhelmed by the numbers they’re dealing with and partly because they are seeing that modifications of loans may be better for their bottom line,” he said.

Nationwide, foreclosure filings in the first quarter were up 9 percent over the fourth quarter of 2008, driven up by the 17 percent increase in March over February. Despite a decrease in bank repossessions, which were down 13 percent from the fourth quarter of 2008 and 3 percent from February, the March and first-quarter totals were the highest monthly and quarterly totals since RealtyTrac began issuing its report in January 2005, Blomquist said.

In Florida, the first-quarter total was still 36 percent higher than the first quarter of 2008 and the fourth-highest rate among states during the quarter, with one in every 73 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing.

Blomquist said that until the overall economic climate improves, foreclosure actions will likely continue to rise.
By Paul Ivice

Tags: auction, bank, Florida, foreclosure, foreclosures, housing, inflatable, lender, loan, Okeechobee, sale, sales, trend

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 16th, 2009 at 10:07 am and is filed under Economy, Indian River County, Martin County, St. Lucie County. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.