Orlando, Miami, Cape Coral and Lakeland in foreclosure rate top 20; Tampa had nation's highest increase over six months

RVINE, Calif. – July 26, 2012 – RealtyTrac released its Midyear 2012 Metropolitan Foreclosure Market Report. It shows that foreclosure activity in the first half of 2012 increased from the previous six months in 125 of the nation’s 212 metropolitan areas with a population of 200,000 or more.

However, in a year-to-year comparison, foreclosure activity declined in 129 of the metro areas.

California cities made up seven of the 10 highest metro foreclosure rates and 10 of the top 20 metro foreclosure rates during the first half of the year, while Florida accounted for four of the top 20 metro foreclosure rates. Illinois accounted for two of the top 20; and Georgia, Arizona, Nevada and Colorado each had one city in the top 20.

“Increasing foreclosure starts in many local markets helped push total foreclosure activity higher in the first half of this year compared to the second half of 2011,” said Brandon Moore, CEO of RealtyTrac. “Those foreclosure starts are welcome news for prospective buyers and real estate brokers in many local markets where a shortage of aggressively priced inventory has been holding up sales activity. Markets with increasing foreclosure starts will likely see more distressed inventory for sale in the form of short sales and bank-owned properties in the second half of the year.”

Top 10 metro foreclosure rates
Stockton, Calif., posted the nation’s highest metro foreclosure rate at 2.66 percent of housing units (one in every 38) in the first half of 2012, followed by four other California cities: Modesto (2.61 percent), Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario (2.59 percent), Vallejo-Fairfield (2.56 percent) and Merced (2.15 percent).

Florida cities in the top 20 include Orlando (No.12), Miami (No. 13), Cape Coral (No. 17) and Lakeland (No. 18).

In gauging change between the last half of 2011 and the first half of 2012, the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area had the highest foreclosure increase at 47 percent.

© 2012 Florida Realtors®
TropicBreeze Realty