Broward, Palm Beach foreclosures fall in September

From left: Sharon Bock and Daren Blomquist
From left: Sharon Bock and Daren Blomquist

Home foreclosures in Broward and Palm Beach counties dropped last month, despite an overall increase in the third quarter, according to year-over-year comparisons in data from RealtyTrac.

Broward saw a 22 percent decrease – to 3,279 filings – last month compared to the previous September, while Palm Beach had a 7 percent decline to 1,798 filings. Through the state, foreclosures were down 22 percent year-over-year. But the third quarter in those counties showed foreclosure growth – 4 percent apiece.

“At the beginning of the quarter, the numbers were still up from a year ago, but in August and September they were down from a year ago,” Daren Blomquist, vice president of RealtyTrac, told The Real Deal. “But the July increase was enough to boost the entire quarter in both counties to higher than the third quarter of last year.”

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Miami, meanwhile, posted the third-highest foreclosure rates in the third quarter among cities nationwide, with one in every 101 housing units having a foreclosure there.

Palm Beach County Clerk and Comptroller Sharon Bock attributed the September decline to a new Florida law requiring lenders to have paperwork before filing a case.

Blomquist said it’s too early to tell if the tapering off is because lenders caught up with the backlog of foreclosures, or because lenders are still adjusting to the new law. [Sun-Sentinel]Mark Maurer