’08 foreclosure rate is on way to a record
Foreclosure action in the first two months of 2008 was nearly three times greater than at the same time last year in Manatee, Sarasota and Charlotte counties.
The 3,683 legal actions so far this year — actual lender takeovers, notices of delinquency and other advance warnings of foreclosure — compares with 1,322 for the first two months of 2007 and about 14,000 for all of 2007, according to data from RealtyTrac, the Irvine, Calif., company that tracks foreclosures nationally.
If this pace continues, banks and other lenders moving to reclaim homes in Southwest Florida could be on their way to making 2008 a record year for foreclosures.
Distressed properties now account for roughly a quarter of all residential transactions, says Mary Howard, president of Lakewood Ranch’s Cornerstone Title.