Foreclosure holdings grow concentrated

About 60 percent of all foreclosed properties in South Florida are held by 10 financial institutions, according to real estate consultancy Condo Vultures. There were 8,893 new bank-owned South Florida properties through the end of April, and Deutsche Bank Trust Co. and its affiliates control 1,422 of them, 16 percent of the total, in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties. U.S. Bank Trust National Association and its affiliates control 1,020, or 11 percent of the total, in South Florida. HSBC Bank, which was the first firm to report large scale subprime mortgage losses, now has 559 real estate-owned properties, or 6.3 percent. Broward County has 46 percent of the foreclosed properties and Miami-Dade County has about 38 percent. Palm Beach County has 17 percent of the total.