Listings Foreclosures - Read the Latest Foreclosure Listings News.

Foreclosed home listings continue to hammer most of Florida's markets, but a few are reportedly showing signs of growth and improvement. In areas popular for being vacation hotspots, wealthy property buyers are reportedly making a comeback as they take advantage of heavily discounted prices among vacation homes and condominium units.

Foreclosure listings in Miami and distressed property numbers in majority of Florida areas continue to depress prices and the overall housing industry. However, in areas like Naples, buyers of vacation or second homes have left the sidelines and have now entered the real estate buying market. The improvement in Naples started last year, analysts have reported, when sales of houses increased by 10%, giving the region its first sales increase in five years.

Although properties in Florida foreclosure listings still account for a huge percentage of total sales in most markets; in vacation hotspots like Naples, more expensive homes are selling faster, with median prices for houses priced at least $300,000 recording a jump of 4%, according to reports from the Naples Area Board of Realtors. Real estate agents in the region also reported that almost 50% of for-sale dwellings in the metro area are accounted for by second houses or vacation homes. The price difference between last year and the 2006 peak price period was around 25%.

Housing analysts explained that, although foreclosed home listings will continue to be top sellers in most of the state's markets for another year, areas of Florida where the affluent usually go will be the most likely to recover first. They stated that wealth usually determines the condition of the housing market and regions like Naples are where the rich usually goes for vacations.

Meanwhile, it is not only Naples' more expensive housing segment that is outpacing repo homes listings, but also most of the resort towns in the state. According to realtors, sales of existing homes in areas like West Palm Beach, Boca Raton and Jupiter have increased by 32%, while condominium sales jumped by 40% in February of this year compared with year-ago levels. Market analysts believe that part of the reason for the surge in sales in these markets is the strong performance of stocks and the decision of the administration not to implement tax hikes.

Meanwhile, others believe that the cold weather in the Midwest have encouraged a lot of vacation home hunters to seek properties in Florida. Analysts also stated that they will not be surprised if prices of houses in Florida outpace the nationwide rate in 2011 despite the huge amount of foreclosed home listings in the region.

The number of properties on foreclosure list in most regions of the U.S. is expected to rise further as the year progresses. Part of the reason is the huge number of mortgages that are currently underwater. Underwater loans are those that cost more than the values of the properties for which they were taken out for.

Locally, Richmond home foreclosures are in danger of rising further for the rest of 2011, just like most U.S. areas, as the region also suffers from huge numbers of underwater loans. During the October-December 2010 quarter, 11.1 million homeowners are believed to be paying a higher rate on their mortgages than the value of their residential properties. Underwater mortgages are considered factors behind foreclosures since those with negative equity or underwater loans are unlikely to be able to sell their homes, an option often considered by homeowners who are having difficulties paying their monthly mortgages.

Virginia foreclosure listings and foreclosed property listings all over the U.S. are expected to grow in 2011 as the number of properties with negative equity accounted for over 23% of total mortgaged houses during the last quarter of the previous year. Compared with the third quarter of last year, nationwide underwater loans for the fourth quarter represented an increase as July-September 2010 figures showed that more than 22% of total mortgages were underwater during that period, which was equivalent to 10.8 million residential properties.

Housing industry analysts claimed that the state most likely to experience further increases in the number of properties on foreclosure list is Nevada as the region has the highest percentage of underwater mortgage loans. Around two-thirds of residential properties in Nevada have underwater loans as of the fourth quarter of last year.

Those states that have the highest number of foreclosed and pre foreclosure listing properties also happened to be the areas with the biggest percentage of underwater loans, analysts have said. Other states in the top five were Arizona, California, Florida and Michigan, with underwater percentages in these markets hovering near the 50% mark. Meanwhile, Oklahoma posted the lowest percentage of underwater loans during the last quarter of 2010, with the area only having 5.8% of its total mortgages considered as underwater.

Despite the decline in the number of foreclosure filings in February, analysts stated that the housing market is still far from a recovery. They stated that underwater mortgages pose huge problems since they can eventually end up as properties on foreclosure list. Further rise in foreclosure numbers can bring another wave of massive home price declines, analysts have added.

Properties under foreclosure homes list accounted for almost 50% of the total number of housing units sold in Arizona last year. The region was second among the 50 U.S. states in terms of foreclosure sales in 2010. Meanwhile, nationwide foreclosure sales percentage declined from a year ago, but was higher than 2008 figures.

Houses under Phoenix foreclosure listings and distressed home listings from across Arizona accounted for 49% of the total number of residential properties sold during 2010. The state was second only to Nevada, which posted a 57% foreclosure sales last year. Despite the high number of foreclosed property sales, local housing industry analysts are seeing some positive signs for Arizona as the figure declined from the 2009 peak of 54%.

The fourth quarter of 2010 contributed to the almost 50% foreclosure sales of the state for the full year as Arizona foreclosures listings accounted for 59% of all residential purchase transactions completed during October-December 2010. The figure represented an increase from the 2010 third quarter, when 54% of total home sales were attributed to foreclosures. Nationwide, the percentage has declined from the previous year, but remained higher than 2008 levels.

Residential properties at foreclosure homes list got 26% of total U.S. housing sales last year, down from the 2009 level of 29%. However, it was still much higher than the 23% recorded in 2008. A total of 831,574 REO and foreclosed properties were sold in the U.S. during the full 2010 period.

The volume of properties under list of bank foreclosures that were sold last year represented a decline of 31% when compared with 2009. Although the percentage of distressed property sales for last year was higher than the percentage recorded in 2008, the 2010 sales volume still represented a decrease of 14% from two years ago. The impact of distressed properties on non-foreclosed home sales remained significant though, as non-foreclosure sales dropped last year by 19% when compared with 2009 and posted a decline of 27% compared with 2008.

Real estate analysts stated that properties in foreclosure homes list will continue to impact the non-foreclosed housing market and it will take some time for the inventory to ease down. Prices of homes are expected to remain low in 2011, mainly because of foreclosure oversupply.