PBC sees foreclosure improvement, rest of South Florida struggles

In South Florida, only Palm Beach County showed a slowdown in its foreclosure activity in May, according to national foreclosure research firm RealtyTrac’s monthly market report, released today.

Palm Beach County saw a 21.29 percent drop in the number of foreclosures from May 2009, and a 1.98 percent month-over-month decline. The county also had the least number of foreclosures, 2,977, or one in every 215 households.

Foreclosure filings include default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions.

Broward saw 6,719 foreclosure filings reported in May — the equivalent of one in every 120 households. This marked a 40.67 percent increase over the number of reported foreclosure filings in May 2009 and a 5.82 increase over April’s foreclosure filings.

Miami-Dade saw a total of 7,696 homes foreclosure filings in May, or one in every 127 households. While the county’s foreclosure filing rate stayed relatively flat year-over-year, decreasing .99 percent, it showed a marked uptick of 31.13 percent from April.

Nationwide, default notices were on the decline in May, the report says, although not dramatically, while the number of bank repossessions continued to climb. A reported 322,920 properties saw foreclosure filings in May, marking a less than 1 percent increase compared to May 2009, and a 3 percent month-over-month decrease.

Last month saw the smallest number of default notices filed since November 2008. A total of 96,462 properties received default notices in May, marking a 22 percent decrease from May 2009 and a 7 percent decrease from April.

Bank repossessions, meanwhile, hit a record monthly high, with 93,777 cases recorded. The figure marks a 44 percent year-over-year increase and a 1 percent month-over-month uptick.