Taking Advantage of the High Florida Foreclosure Rate
January 29th, 2007 by 
Joseph Smith
Almost 125, 000 Florida properties entered some stage of foreclosure last year, an increase of 13% from 95,269 homes in 2005. Homeowners with sub-prime and adjustable rate mortgages are the ones at great risk. Experts are expecting more foreclosures in 2007 once these loans reset.
There are several factors which contributed to the high Florida foreclosure rate. These include aggressive lending practices, slow home value appreciation, nationwide increase in mortgage interest rates and a slow housing market climate. Most of the homeowners who took advantage of the 2000 housing boom are now having difficulties paying off their mortgages. Even with available options like re-financing and re-structuring, many of these homeowners were not even qualified to own a home in the first place.
To make matters worse, any equity on these properties might be lost since the high inventory of foreclosures have made buyers and investors choosier. Homeowners are now resorting to options like a short sale, deed in lieu of foreclosure and even bankruptcy, if worse comes to worst. Lenders are entering their REOs in listings contracts with reputable brokers like Foreclosure Deals to attract more investors.
Meanwhile, investors are now enjoying the many potentials and possibilities offered by the current Florida foreclosures rate. Lenders and homeowners are competing against each other for sales of these Florida foreclosure homes. The lenders would like to cut holding costs on their foreclosed properties and offset foreclosure proceeding costs. Homeowners, on the other hand, are hoping to regain some equity and at the same time, avoid having a foreclosure record on their credit history.
Timing is always crucial for real estate investors. Although there was an increase in foreclosure activities that somehow helped in partially correcting the housing market condition, investors are still waiting on the sidelines for the prices of these Florida foreclosure properties to drop further.
