Florida is number one when it comes to foreclosures. This is the first time since 2005 that Florida has held the top spot.
The rankings for September are based on figures released Thursday by RealtyTrac.
Within the state, Broward County has the highest percentage of homes going through the foreclosure process.
Jack McCabe is a housing analyst in Deerfield Beach and the CEO of McCabe Research and Consulting. He says the numbers don’t come as a surprise and blames all of the flipping that took place several years ago.
“We had five years of absolute greed run amok, and it devastated our market," McCabe says.
He calls South Florida the epicenter for this type of behavior which included exotic mortgages that depended on prices continuing to rise.
“Even though it’s six years later now I’ve been trying to warn people that this takes a while," McCabe says. "Real estate is not like the stock market. It doesn’t fluctuate daily.”
In Florida, it takes more than two years to complete a foreclosure. McCabe says this means it could take three to four years to clear out the inventory of foreclosed homes in the state.
