The results are in for the first quarter and it is not a pretty picture on the foreclosure front here in Florida or for that matter the Tampa Real Estate Market.

Two reports this week that are interesting depending on how you can decipher the content ? The first report is by Trans Union. They put together a trended analysis report that reviews 2007 fourth quarter data to compile their latest statistics and then forecast for 2008. They are reporting that Florida delinquent mortgages have increased by 34 %.

The top three areas showing the largest growth in delinquency from previous quarters are Florida at (34 percent), California (33 percent) and Arizona (32 percent).

“The market continues to see the effect of the mortgage crisis in the steeply increasing mortgage delinquency rates among borrowers across the country,” said Keith Carson, a senior consultant in Trans Union’s financial services group.

The national 60-day mortgage borrower delinquency rate is expected to continue to rise throughout 2008 from a value of nearly 3.0 percent in the 4th quarter of 2007 to 4.0 percent or greater by year end.

On another note: Realty Trac released their quarterly report on the U.S. Foreclosure Market which states that “Foreclosure activity has increased by 23 % in the first quarter of 2008.” They are reporting that Nevada, California, Arizona posted the top state foreclosure rates.

“Foreclosure filings were reported on 87,893 Florida properties during the first quarter, the second highest state total and giving Florida the nation’s fourth highest foreclosure rate — one in every 97 households received a foreclosure filing during the quarter. Foreclosure activity in the state was up 17 percent from the previous quarter and up 178 percent from the first quarter of 2007.”

“The highest ranked Florida metro area was Fort Lauderdale, which ranked No. 8 with one in every 73 households receiving a foreclosure filing during the quarter. Other Florida metro areas in the top 20 included Orlando at No. 13, Miami at No. 14 and Sarasota-Bradenton-Venice at No. 15. The foreclosure rate in Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater ranked No. 21.”

So this actually shows that the Tampa and St. Petersburg Real Estate areas are faring a bit better on the over all State level.

While the numbers on a whole do not look too promising, this is still a positive note for the Tampa Bay Area Housing Markets, and once again affirms the prediction by our States Economist that Tampa Real Estate markets will recover first starting with Pasco County.

If you want to find out specific information on Foreclosure statistics in your area and or find out which homes are in foreclosure or are on the auction list, you can go to RealtyTracs home page, click on the interactive map. For example click on the US Map, in the Florida area, this will then pull up a State Map where you can enter in a specific county. For example Pasco County and then click on search.

You will then be presented with the break down of total number of homes in pre-foreclosure, auction, bank owned etc. You can gain some pretty good information for free however, to see specifics on taxes etc you have to have a paid membership. The site looks complex but is fairly easy to navigate. Check back tomorrow and I will post a quick video over-view to walk you through the process.

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It?s no wonder that home buyers sit on the fence and wonder when the right time to buy will arrive? Since the the mass confusion in the markets continues and the various media outlets can?t seem to come together on what?s really up anymore.

Heres a perfect example of Florida Real Estate as compared to other states :

In this weekends local St. Pete Times Finance section, I read an article that discussed the facts, that some home owners were finding out that the falling values of their homes were effecting previously issued home equity lines of credit. This column-article by Helen Huntly lists several local citizens as point of reference.

What?s interesting in this story, is that one of the individuals used as a source doesn?t come clean and tell the Times that their are?umm?issues with that owned property, that would make anyone understand why the bank said NO.

St. Pete times should vet comments or sources a little bit more prior to printing articles using outside sources.

Ok even so ?..this seems plausible given the current economic climate we are in. But then today I read an online article on the Wall Street Journal touting how a Home Equity line of Credit could be your safety net ?

The last line in that article is kind of interesting to say the least ?And you won’t be penalized if you never tap your home-equity credit line.?

So what?s your experience, is this happening as much as the Times says it is here in the Greater Tampa Bay?

What about the WSJ article?good idea or bad ?

Related Posts:

1 in 3 Home Owners with Negative Equity according to Zillow

How to stop foreclosure - 101

I actually found this video while looking at the 1000 Watt Blog as I was waiting on hold for customer support for over an hour for something that has in my mind been broken. You may notice that I have not been posting on as regular a basis as I had anticipated for the New Year, This is due in large part to my hosting service company having major technical issues that they cannot seem to get resolved. Anyways less I digress here, the relation to Real Estate is really very apropos.

As Marc Davison comments on his Blog ? Why not fix what isn’t broken? Would that not be a great way to gain advantage over the masses embracing complacency? ?

Take a look at the Video below:

OK, I am experiencing technical difficulties at the moment that prevent me from directly posting the video (embedding) so I have to post the link instead. After you view the video please continue with the rest of the post

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAtkoje4-eM

Now that you have seen this?most people look at this and ?say ,wow what a neat idea!

A company called Altos Research has issued a new report that will add some real time perspective to market conditions. Since most of the reports take months to generate, Altos intends to lower the playing field by providing quicker market statistics. Their inaugural report looks at 20 major metro markets which allows them to publish key statistics about pricing, supply, demand and trends, while drawing conclusions about what’s happening in local markets.

The Real IQ figures by Altos consulting for December indicate that the National Picture is still not looking too great. I have singled out the data for the Florida market and compared Miami with Tampa and you can see that Tampa is still showing signs of distress but did better than Miami with number of days on market averaging 109 days over the last 3 months.

While listing inventories fell some what in Tampa and around the U.S Miami fluctuated upwards slightly.

Where Tampa and Miami fared close was in the Percentage of Inventory with Price Reductions as they were both in the middle of the pack.

Tampa and Miami were close in the Median Home Price and the data shows that the Florida Market still dropped more than the National Average.

A few of the key Florida statistics indicate:

• Tampa market had increases of more than 20% in number of days on market from September through November.
• Tampa market experienced -4.2 % price reduction over the last 3 months.
• Miami markets experienced a -2.9% price reduction over the last 3 months.
• Miami experienced the longest time-on-market spans with an average days-on-market of 137 in November.
• Miami Listing Inventory was basically unchanged showing only a 0.3% increase.

While the statistics don?t look that good, we have seen some movement here in the Greater Tampa Bay Area for December.

It is still too early to determine if any of the Government sponsored Mortgage initiatives will help or hinder the market though.

Related Posts:

Is there an upside to real estate downturn ?

NAR Paints Rosy Picture for Tampa Housing

Zillow Zindex indicates Floridians lost home equity

As the numbers continue to stack up in the never ending saga, it is interesting to be able to obtain a comparative analysis of just how big the entire U.S Mortgage crisis is ? Unless you you recall previous word events and add them into the mix you really have no idea of the entire current and potential impact to the overall economy.

Last week on a trip to California, I read a rather lengthy article in the WSJ that really puts this entire issue into perspective.

In a simple explanation you can say that that the current status rival the Savings & Loan meltdown back-in the late 80?s and early 90?s. The ultimate extent of the crisis will depend on how steep the values in America homes fall over the course of the next 6 months when added to ARM resets and additional foreclosures.

When you look at this purely from a dollars stand point, it has the potential to really put a dent in the overall U.S and World Economies when you compare it to say our GDP (Gross Domestic Product).

I broke down the article statistics into the the two charts you see here. This really gives you a better idea of the situation. From a purely dollars sense, at present we are better off then the Savings & Loan fiasco and the Japanese meltdown back in the ate 90?s. The over all impact to to our GDP should we end up in the worst case scenario losses upwards of $400 Billion into late 2008, we would still fare a skosh better than the S&L and much better then Japan did with shier Banking issues.

While the Florida Tampa Bay Area Housing Market continues to have it?s share of problems, I was surprised to see just how bad the California Real Estate markets really were. I am working on another post for later in the week that covers my trip and some thoughts on the East Coast vs. West Coast Housing markets.

_{DISCLAIMER: Since the Wall Street Journal requires a subscription to read the entire article I searched and found an alternate location. The site that I am linking to here is just for the WSJ article content: U.S. Mortgage Crisis Rivals S&L Meltdown. It appears to be a site with an Agenda and I don?t condone the site message or anything else that might be on the site.}

Related Posts:

Will rate resets spoil the New Year ?

Is there an upside to real estate downturn ?

Is now the right time to buy your Florida home ?

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