Home Foreclosures in Florida

It’s not just the cost of living that’s going up! Foreclosure filings, especially here in Florida, are also increasing.

In May, Florida had the most home foreclosures in the country.  CBS spoke to real estate experts to see just how bad this problem is.  Florida had nearly 3000 home foreclosures in May which is a significant increase from the previous month and year. Nationwide, more than 35,000 homeowners were unable to make their payments in May. However, realtors and brokers believe that COVID is to blame for the uptick.

“The reason that you’re seeing more is that there’s a backlog. Some of it is from the pandemic where they just weren’t able to foreclose on people, so some of that is just catching up.”

“The people that were dependent on the government incentives are now realizing that those have dried up and it’s not forever, and they have to deal with today’s real financial problems.”

But the increase in foreclosures is nothing to be overly concerned about right now, as we are nowhere near the volume of the 2008 housing crisis and the unemployment rate is miniscule compared to then. “In the 08-13 market, there was a lot of unemployment, and a lot of people lost their jobs. None of that is going on right now.”

“Unemployment is down a little bit, but wages also dropped because there is more supply of employees.”

At the end of the day, while things may look bleak on the surface, things aren’t as dire as they appear. “We should always get a little concerned when you see an increase in a red flag area like foreclosures, but I don’t think it’s as bad as some fear.” “If you start to see unemployment go up, and people losing their jobs, then I would be a lot more concerned”.

Experts expect numbers to stabilize to pre-covid numbers by the end of the year.