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Pre-foreclosure listings provider Default Research’s data showed that the total count of homeowners who received foreclosure filings in counties of Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade increased by just below one percent in February 2009.

This slight increase in foreclosure filings and foreclosure listings homes sold led Default Research to conclude that Florida foreclosures slowed in February.

The tri-counties posted a total of 7,467 foreclosure notifications last month, an increase of 28 units from the same month in 2008.
Serdar Bankaci, Default Research founder, pointed out that based on real estate indicators, the average home price in Florida continue to drop by almost 40 percent since three years ago.

However, the number of homes in foreclosure listings dropped steadily since December 2008, Bankaci noted.

Broward County posted an annual decline of 28 percent, while Palm Beach and Miami-Dade saw 51 percent and 11 percent increases, respectively.

The following are the total residential South Florida foreclosure listings by cities in each county:

Broward County:

• 242 homes in foreclosure listings in Miramar
• 240 homes in Fort Lauderdale
• 212 homes in Hollywood
• 180 homes in Pembroke Pines
• 177 homes in Pompano Beach

Palm Beach County

• 431 homes in foreclosure listings in West Palm Beach
• 266 homes in Lake Worth
• 219 homes in Boca Raton
• 177 homes in Boynton Beach, and
• 96 homes in Delray Beach

Miami-Dade County

• 2,235 homes in foreclosure listings in Miami
• 392 homes in Hialeah
• 119 homes in Miami-Beach
• 104 homes in Miami Gardens, and
• 93 homes in North Miami

Data from Florida Association of Realtors showed that there were 78,676 owners of single-family homes and condominiums who filed for foreclosures in South Florida between January to October 2008. For the same period, Palm Beach County saw 24,091 foreclosure filings, 32, 271 in Broward County and 22,314 in Miami-Dade County.

In 2007, South Florida reported foreclosure filings of 33,154, which increased to 75,730 filings in 2008.

Meanwhile, Default Research noted a 35 percent increase in the number of retail and commercial foreclosures in South Florida for the first two months of this year.

Bankaci explained that the recession and decline in consumer spending have forced businesses in the area to close. He added that because of increasing business failures, property owners find it hard to refinance which resulted to the rise in commercial foreclosures.

If you are an investor looking for opportunities in the real estate sector or a prospective homeowner looking for a more affordable property to buy, now is the time to buy. The low home prices due to large numbers of foreclosure listings will enable you to earn a profit even after spending for repairs.

Rick Sharga, an executive of foreclosure tracking firm RealtyTrac, said investors can make money from the rising numbers of foreclosure listings if they do their research and if they have the finances to wait for some more years before selling. He advises against investing through flipping because he expects the market to continue to be flooded with home foreclosure listings.

Sharga said that despite nationwide foreclosure prevention initiatives, repossessed homes would continue to be added to foreclosure listings because of continued job losses and business closures. He said the February total of 291,000 units added to foreclosure listings indicates that foreclosure auctions will not end soon.

Hence investors taking advantage of low prices should have the financial resources to wait for a couple of years and should have backups in case they are laid off. Investors should have adequate money for the monthly mortgage payments in case they can not find renters. They should also make sure that the property has no outstanding tax lien or any other lien and that what they are buying is a first mortgage and not a second mortgage.

Additionally, there are other important things that you need to consider before investing in properties from foreclosure listings.

First, consult with a reputable real estate agent about foreclosure listings, prices, home sales and resale prices in the neighborhood and in nearby communities. Ask how long rental properties and resale properties are marketed before they are taken. Next, hire a general contractor to inspect the property and estimate the cost of repairs. Finally, calculate your total outlay by adding up your down payment, repair costs, marketing costs and monthly payments for the expected period there are no renters.

While buying properties from foreclosure listings might not be very comfortable because of the thought of families being evicted from foreclosed homes, investing in distressed properties helps rejuvenate the housing sector and ultimately contributes to economic recovery.

The case of a retired Ohio professor unable to sell his house after over two years of competing with foreclosure listings indicates how low the Ohio housing market has gone down because of continued Ohio foreclosures.

Based on a report by the Ohio Association of Realtors, home sales in January in Ohio has gone down by 21.3 percent to 3,527 units from total sales of 4,482 units in January 2008. Because of thousands of homes in foreclosure listings, the average home sale price for January has gone down to $115,326, a decrease of 11.9 percent from the average sale price in January 2008.

Similarly, the housing market in Mansfield has been battered by foreclosure listings, with only 72 units sold in January. This represented an 8.9 percent drop from total sales in January 2008. The average sale price was $66,765, a drastic 21.5 percent fall from the average price in January 2008.

Ralph Hunt, the professor who has retired from full-time teaching at the Ohio State University in Mansfield, has been selling his Tudor-style two-story home for around $170,000. He bought the house seven years ago for about $129,000.

Thinking that he can sell immediately his Mansfield house, he bought a new house near Akron where he planned to retire. But the lack of people moving to Mansfield has frustrated his plan. Most prospective buyers living around Mansfield can not proceed with their house purchase plans because they could not sell their own houses.

Like what housing analysts have been witnessing across the country, the professor and the prospective buyers have been caught in the swirl of rapidly growing foreclosure listings. Don Mitchell, director of Mansfield-Richland County Fair Housing, said foreclosure listings have not only pushed down home prices, they also have left homes and yards in disrepair, further pushing down home prices.

Since Hunt was unable to sell his Mansfield house after he bought a new house, he has had to struggle month after month to pay two monthly amortizations. This week, after more than two years of waiting and competing with foreclosure listings, his agent told him he has found a buyer. But Hunt may have to throw out any thought of gains from the house he maintained for more than seven years. His agent says the buyer is willing to shell out only around $125,000 for his house, more than $40,000 below his original listing price.

The main tool used by real estate professionals in appraising properties in foreclosure listings is sale prices of houses in the area. They will compare the market prices of similar houses in nearby areas to houses in foreclosure listings that they are appraising to get a comparable amount.ses in nearby areas to houses in foreclosure listings that they are appraising to get a comparable amount.

Thirty-five counties accounted for over 50 percent of the 2.3 million foreclosures in the U.S. in 2008, according to USA Today, which analyzed foreclosure data collected by RealtyTrac. This figure supports the contention that the national economic crisis may have started with defaulting mortgage loans in just a few areas of the country.

A rising number of renters across the country have been made homeless because of the sudden inclusion of their rental homes in foreclosure listings. Oftentimes, they do not know their units have been foreclosed until they are evicted from their units.

Home sales continue to slide as foreclosures by state continue to rise. Home sellers who are hoping they would increase their sales during the selling season of March to June are concerned about the continued rise in foreclosures by state despite the foreclosure moratorium and despite the launching of President Obama’s economic stimulus program.

The release of the guidelines of President Obama’s $75 billion program on the promised date shows the administration’s commitment to solve the national foreclosure crisis. As foreclosures by state are reduced, states’ housing markets recover, leading to a national housing market recovery.

The continuous addition of homes to foreclosure listings across the country has sparked the creativity of several people and companies out to swindle homeowners in one of the most vulnerable periods in their lives.