Another jump for Florida foreclosures

Florida foreclosure activity increased for the second straight month in October, with the state maintaining America’s second-highest foreclosure rate for the third month in a row. One in every 155 Florida housing units received a foreclosure filing last month, 2.5 times the national average, according to data from RealtyTrac.

For the month, there were 56,858 properties statewide receiving a foreclosure filing, second in the nation to California and representing 17 percent of all foreclosures in America for the month.

The numbers follow a month that saw investigations into allegedly unseemly practices by firms handling Florida foreclosures.

Miami-Dade County saw a decrease, however, with a total of 5,786 foreclosure filings for the month, more than a 25 percent decrease from the same period in 2009. Broward and Palm Beach counties did not fare as well, with Broward seeing a 7.75 percent increase and Palm Beach more than doubling with a 104.51 percent increase to 6,851 total filings. The most total filings, however, were in Broward County, with 7,234.

Palm Beach County’s rate of one out of every 94 units in foreclosure was the highest in Florida.

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In total, there were 19,961 foreclosure filings in South Florida, up 11 percent from the year before.

In the third quarter, the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach market led the nation in foreclosure filing activity, with 58,624, due in part to Florida’s nature as a judicial foreclosure state.

Nationally, foreclosure filings dropped. Lenders made foreclosure filings on 93,236 properties last month, down nine percent from a record high in September but still up 21 percent from Oct. 2009.

Foreclosure auctions were scheduled for the first time on 138,361 properties in the U.S. last month, a decrease from 2009.