Despite a strengthening housing market, South Florida reported the second highest foreclosure rate in the country during August.
A new report from RealtyTrac said that the Miami metropolitan area, which covers Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, had a foreclosure rate of one in every 568 housing units last month.
The region was behind only Tampa, which posted a foreclosure rate of one in every 527 housing units (single-family homes or condos).
That rate, however, is not nearly as high as it was in 2014 — or even earlier this year. In July, the tri-county area had a foreclosure rate of one in 339 homes. And when comparing the August rate to the same month last year, foreclosures are down 37 percent, according to the report.
Daren Blomquist, vice president of RealtyTrac
The Miami metro’s rate is gradually decreasing to match the national average of one in every 1,205 housing units.
“Foreclosure starts in August continued to search for a new floor below even pre-recession levels, indicating the housing recovery of the past three years is built on a solid financing foundation,” Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac, wrote in the report. “But the continued rise in bank repossessions indicates more batches of bank-owned homes will be rippling through the housing market over the next three to 12 months as lenders list these properties for sale.