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Fort Lauderdale Foreclosed Homes, Underwater Mortgages Rise
December 1st, 2009 by 
jparker
The number of Fort Lauderdale foreclosed homes in the July-September quarter continued to surpass the number of foreclosed houses in the same period last year due to the record number of underwater mortgages and the high unemployment rate in the area.
According to an online real estate services provider, almost half of all borrowers occupying single-family dwellings in Fort Lauderdale became underwater borrowers in the July-September quarter.
Across South Florida, 46 percent of all homeowners or 387,157 households became underwater borrowers at the end of September, one-percentage-point lower than 47 percent in the April-June quarter.
Nationwide, 21 percent of all homeowners with loans became underwater borrowers at the end of the July-September quarter, a decrease from 23 percent in the April-June quarter. Analysts said that the slight decline was driven by home price stabilization in several areas and by the large number of underwater borrowers who have already lost their properties to foreclosure.
The report also said that about 50 percent of homes sold during the month of September were sold off at big losses to the seller.
Based on a report released by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, despite the year-over-year increase in the number of Fort Lauderdale foreclosed homes, home prices in the Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach-Miami metro area still registered an increase in the July-September quarter. The average home price in the metro area increased to $356,600, an increase of 1.8 percent from the previous price level of $350,600.
Across the country, the average home price in 32 of the largest metropolitan areas increased by only a small percentage in the third quarter compared to the same period last year. The average price for both newly-built homes and previously owned homes climbed up to $319,800, an increase of only about 0.3 percent from $318,700.
Half of the 32 metro areas experienced an increase in average prices while the other half experienced a decrease.
As published by another research firm, the Fort Lauderdale metro area experienced almost 54,000 foreclosure postings during the July-September quarter. Although this marked a drop of more than five percent from the prior quarter, the total for the quarter was still high, contributing to the high ranking of Florida in charts of states based on rates of foreclosures.
Florida ranked third in foreclosure rankings in the third quarter, with nearly 52,000 of its households in default or in foreclosure during the quarter.
