SF foreclosures fall again, but activity could be picking up

In South Florida, while there were a total of 16,040 properties in the tri-county area with a foreclosure filing in April 2010, there were just 6,524 such properties in the region last month, according to new RealtyTrac data.

Miami-Dade County saw the highest number, with 2,715 properties with filings last month, a 53 percent decrease from April 2010.

There were 2,069 filings in Broward County in March, and 1,740 in Palm Beach County. Miami-Dade had the lowest rate of foreclosures in South Florida, with one out of every 361 housing units.

Florida stands out for plummeting recent foreclosure activity largely due to the foreclosure document scandal although there are some signs that the number of filings could soon pick up, according to RealtyTrac spokesperson Daren Blomquist.

“We continue to be in a very deep trough in terms of foreclosure activity in Florida,” he said. “But for the first time since October 2010, we saw a monthly increase from March to April in lis pendens filings.”

In Miami-Dade in particular, lis pendens filings were up 24 percent from March to April, an early indicator that lenders are starting to increase their capacity for properties they’re pushing into foreclosure, he said.

Nationally, foreclosures fell 34 percent last month compared to April 2010, with a total of 219,258 properties in the U.S. on which there was some form of foreclosure filing.