Fla. helps push foreclosures to record high
by Monica Hatcher
Link to ArticleFlorida and California, states with significant investor speculation and overbuilding during the real estate boom, helped push the percentage of homes entering foreclosure nationwide to record highs, an industry group reported Thursday.Together the two states had 21 percent of all outstanding loans but were responsible for 30 percent of new foreclosures in the three-month period ending Dec. 31, according to numbers released by the Mortgage Bankers Association. In Florida, 10.69 percent of borrowers with first lien home loans were behind on payments or in foreclosure, compared to 7.86 percent nationwide, the report said. The percentage of new foreclosures in the state rose to 5.19 percent from 3.52 percent in the previous quarter, driven by a large percentage of defaults among subprime borrowers who got loans despite shaky credit.More than 17 percent of all subprime loans entered foreclosure in the fourth-quarter, compared to just 2.66 percent of prime loans. MBA economist Doug Duncan said the state's foreclosure problems were the result of interest rates resetting on adjustable-rate loans coupled with falling home prices. ''We don't expect to see the peak in delinquencies or foreclosures until mid to late 2008 with the slow down in activity and seizure of credit markets,'' Duncan said, adding the significant tightening of lending standards by financial institutions could also delay the market's recovery. These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. If you have accounts on these bookmarking sites, you can post this story to share it with others.
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