Foreclosure filings fell by nearly half in the tri-county South Florida region in the second quarter, and dropped by a third for 2010's first half, according to a report by CondoVultures, the Bal Harbour-based consulting firm.
Lenders started about 14,500 foreclosure actions in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties between April and June, 49% fewer than the 28,400 actions initiated during the same period a year ago.
For the first six months of the year, filings were down 34%, from 52,200 to 37,800. But perhaps a better benchmark is the first half of 2007, when just 8,000 foreclosure notices were filed.
On average, banks have filed about 190 actions per day so far this year.
"As high as the current number seems, the pace is down significantly from recent years when a daily average of 288 actions were filed in 2009 and 209 actions in 2008," said Peter Zalewski, principal at CondoVultures.
"Prior to the real estate crash, lenders filed fewer than 50 foreclosure actions per calendar day."
