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Florida No. 2 in failed loans as foreclosures surge

MIAMI – June 6, 2008 – As adjustable-rate home loans continued to reset amid falling property values, the number of homeowners succumbing to foreclosure surged in Florida in the first three months of the year to 77,000 properties.

The state ranked second in the country for failing loans, according to a report released Thursday by the Mortgage Bankers Association. California led, with 109,000 foreclosures. The next highest states were Texas, Michigan and Ohio, which each had no more than 24,000 foreclosures during the three-month period.

Florida and California represent the largest percentages of home loans in the country in markets that also saw some of the fastest home price appreciation and new construction over the past several years.

“The problems in California and Florida are extraordinary,” said Jay Brinkmann, vice president for research and economics with the MBA. “They are the main drivers of the national trend.”

Brinkmann said foreclosures still appeared to be more heavily influenced by loan type rather than other economic factors.

The foreclosure rate nationally rose to 2.47 percent of all first home loans at the end of the first quarter, compared to 1.28 percent during the same period a year ago, again the highest rate since 1979 when the MBA began compiling statistics. MBA statistics do not include foreclosures on second mortgages and home equity credit lines.

Together, California and Florida pushed up the national average to a point where 43 states fell below it, Brinkmann said. Twenty states saw their foreclosure rates decline, including Michigan, Ohio and Indiana, areas where economic decline had pushed rates for years.

Brinkmann said dips in rates in those states could be the result of efforts by the federal government and private lenders to help keep borrowers in their homes through loan modifications and programs like Hope Now, which has fashioned loan workouts from some 1.6 million borrowers since last summer.

Florida’s foreclosure rate stood at 4.61 percent of some 3.5 million loans examined in the report, compared to 1.03 percent of 3.42 million loans in the same period a year ago. More than 7 percent of borrowers in the state were past due on their mortgage payments by 30 days or more. Brinkmann said the situation in Florida would continue to worsen.

While Florida accounts for 8 percent of mortgages nationally, it represents 15 percent of loans in foreclosure. Compared with California, which represents 13 percent of outstanding loans and 21 percent of foreclosures.

Subprime loans continued to topple borrowers at a rapid-fire place. Of 548,000 subprime loans in Florida, 16 percent were in foreclosures, compared to 3.75 percent a year ago of 553,000 subprime loans.

Copyright © 2008, The Miami Herald, Monica Hatcher. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services