Cooling residential market or not, South Florida is riding a now years-long trend of falling foreclosures rates.
A newly released report shows that November marked yet another month of evaporating foreclosure activity in the region, bringing down South Florida’s rank to 10th in the nation among major metropolitan areas.
The report, compiled by real estate research company ATTOM Data Solutions, said one of every 786 housing units in South Florida was in some stage of foreclosure last month. While that rate is still relatively high, it’s fallen nearly 18 percent compared to the November 2015.
Of South Florida’s three counties, Miami-Dade had the largest share of distressed properties with 1,479 homes in the foreclosure pipeline last month. Broward came in second with 1,012 housing units, followed by Palm Beach with 657.
Miami was once one of the worst hit in the nation for foreclosures during the housing crash, in no small part because of loose mortgage restrictions and a surplus of condo projects.
As home prices recovered and buyers adopted all-cash purchases, however, the region’s foreclosure rate has steadily fallen over the past few years.
The nation’s top ranked location for foreclosures in November was Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where one in every 341 homes was distressed. — Sean Stewart-Muniz