Higher home prices and a stable job market have slashed the number of foreclosures across South Florida.
In the first half of 2017, 12,463 properties were in some stage of foreclosure, down 33% from a year ago and 56% from the same period of 2015, according to the Attom Data Solutions research firm in Irvine, Calif.
As a region, Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties will finish the year with a fraction of the total that occurred during the 2009 peak, when 172,854 properties were in the foreclosure process.
Statewide, foreclosures are down 34% from a year ago and 56% from 2015.
"We're smack dab in the middle of a very strong housing market," said Daren Blomquist, a vice president of Attom. "One of the hallmarks of a housing boom is that foreclosures are rare. It's taken a long time to return to normal, but we're finally there."
Blomquist said South Florida is on pace to finish the year with a foreclosure rate of about 1%. The rate hasn't been that low in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties since the firm started tracking that data in 2006, he said.
Attom scours public records for three types of foreclosure filings: new cases, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions.
From January through June, 41% of all South Florida properties sold at auction went to a buyer other than a lender. That's the highest percentage in the first half of any year since 2000, Blomquist said.
David Dweck, founder of the Boca Real Estate Investment Club, said strong demand and low inventory mean investors have to get creative in finding distressed homes for sale.
He tells club members they should look for properties in probate or contact struggling homeowners directly to see if they want to complete short sales before the lenders try to take back the homes.
"You have to dig much, much deeper to find deals these days," Dweck said.
