Homestead reels from property crash

The city of Homestead has Miami-Dade County’s highest rate of foreclosure, with one in 49 homes at some stage of the process as of the end of September. In 2007, it was the fastest growing city in the country among municipalities of 50,000 or more, but it has lost an estimated 1,800 residents in the past year, a blow to its tax base. Over seven years, Homestead’s housing stock rose 59 percent, but today, many homeowners have loans far in excess of the value of their houses. [Miami Herald]