Foreclosure filings jump in July

MANATEE — So much for the lull in local foreclosures.

Lenders initiated 576 foreclosure lawsuits in Manatee County Circuit Court in July, up from 497 in June, court records show. That snapped a three-month streak of falling foreclosure filings that had some hopeful that the crisis finally was easing.

“Now I’m hoping this is just a one-time thing,” Pete Minarich of Real Estate Mortgage Network said Monday of the July spike, the second-highest monthly total on record.

Local foreclosure filings began steadily rising in late 2006 and peaked this past March, when there were 608. The number of new filings then dropped each month from April through June before July’s uptick.

Despite the three-month slowdown in new foreclosure filings, they remain about 20 percent ahead of last year’s record pace. In all, lenders have begun 3,769 foreclosure actions through July 31.

Analysts blamed July’s spike on a variety of factors, ranging from rising unemployment to falling home values.

Minarich said his business is seeing more homeowners seeking to refinance mortgages that exceed their home’s value. For those who cannot refinance, a growing number are opting to “walk away” and let the lender foreclose, he said.

Anne Weintraub, a Sarasota real-estate attorney, said more homeowners are viewing their monthly mortgage payments “as throwing their cash in the toilet.”

“Values are so upside-down that most homeowners will never recover their investments so they give up, and thus the rise in foreclosures,” she said.

Weintraub also said high unemployment and pay reductions, especially in housing-related industries, also are fueling foreclosures. She also said lenders largely remain unwilling to work with distressed borrowers and that the federal government’s foreclosure-relief efforts have fallen short.

While the foreclosure surge began with low-income borrowers defaulting on subprime mortgages, it’s grown to include homes in wealthier neighborhoods and more commercial properties, according to a Bradenton Herald analysis of July filings.

Among properties that lenders targeted for foreclosure last month:

n A $1.2 million waterfront home off Palma Sola Bay.

n The stalled Wildcat Preserve residential development at Fort Hamer and Golf Course roads near Parrish.

n Seven lots in the Palmetto Industrial Park.

n The site for North Shore Point, a proposed boat-storage facility on the Manatee River in Ellenton.

The Herald’s analysis also showed more than 52 percent of the properties entering foreclosure process last month were non-homesteaded, the first time since December that seasonal and rental homes outnumbered primary homes.

Also, City Walk Condominiums of Bradenton had the most foreclosure filings with 87, all owned by one person. There were 11 each in the Bayshore Gardens and Covered Bridge Estates neighborhoods, followed by 10 each in two Lakewood Ranch villages: Country Club and Greenbrook.