Flagler Open Foreclosure Cases Decline by 29.1 Percent since January

Housecleaning – Florida has the second highest foreclosure inventory of all states but had more foreclosure completions in June than the next three states combined.

Palm Coast, FL – August 6, 2014 – There were 1,032 open foreclosure cases in Flagler County on August 1, 2014. That’s a 29.1% decrease from January, mirroring the national trend of fewer new filings and an active foreclosure sale process. That inventory goes up with new foreclosures and goes down as foreclosures are completed. Simply said, there are fewer new foreclosures than there are foreclosure completions.

A foreclosure completion marks the final step in the foreclosure process. It’s when either the lender or other bidder wins the title to the foreclosed property through an auction held at the Clerk of Court office. Flagler had 61 foreclosure completions in July, most of them single-family residential homes.

When the lender wins, they typically resell the property “as is.” In July, 26.6% of all MLS single-family home sales in the county were lender-owned. They were sold at a “dollars per square foot” discount of 35.3% compared to non-distressed sales. When other bidders win, they typically bring the property up to non-distressed condition before reselling or renting it.

With 5.0% of its mortgaged homes in some stage of foreclosure, Florida ranks second among all states. New Jersey is on top with 5.7%. Florida is followed by New York (4.3%), Hawaii (3.1%) and Maine (2.7%). All are judicial foreclosure states.

Florida is one of 24 judicial foreclosure states. This means that the foreclosure process is overseen by the courts. The judicial process is believed to offer more protections to property owners, but it is also known to be long and often arduous. The statistics are clear. Non-judicial states have done a better job of clearing out their foreclosure inventory.

Nevada leads non-judicial states in foreclosure inventory with 2.2% of mortgaged homes in foreclosure. Compare to judicial foreclosure states New Jersey (5.7%) and Florida (5.0%).