MANATEE -- Manatee County set yet another foreclosure record in 2010 despite a late-year slowdown spurred by questionable practices by banks and their attorneys, according to data released today.
Mortgage lenders and servicers filed foreclosure-related documents against 8,815 Manatee homes last year, 11 more than the previous record set in 2009, RealtyTrac reported.
“I think the numbers are indicative of those people who have been trying and trying and trying to hold on as long as they could,” said Bob Stobaugh, senior lender for Sentinel Mortgage Co. in Sarasota. “The economy just hasn’t picked up and they’re faced with the inevitable.”
Based on RealtyTrac’s numbers, one in every 19 Manatee homes was in the foreclosure process at some point last year, the Irvine, Calif-based foreclosure listing service said.
Manatee had the 14th-highest foreclosure rate in Florida, which had the nation’s third-highest rate in 2010, said RealtyTrac, which has been tracking foreclosures since 2005.
The local record came despite foreclosure filings plunging by nearly 40 percent overall in December from a year earlier. Banks initiated foreclosure proceedings against 146 Manatee homes, set auctions on 280 more and repossessed another 58 last month -- compared to 546, 172 and 88, respectively, in December 2009.
At SarasotaForeclosures.com, a local listing service for foreclosed real estate in Manatee and Sarasota counties, broker Adam Robinson says he has seen foreclosure filings slow in Sarasota County.
“The number of new foreclosures being filed has declined significantly in the last quarter of 2010,” Robinson said. “For the quarter, Sarasota County had under 300 new foreclosure filings a month, whereas new foreclosure filings averaged 500 a month over the first nine months of the year.”
The nationwide slowdown stems from controversy over questionable documentation submitted by banks and their lawyers in foreclosure cases. All 50 state attorneys general have launched a joint fraud investigation, with Florida’s conducting a separate investigation into the practices of several high-volume law firms dubbed “foreclosure mills.”
Several lenders reacted by implementing temporary foreclosure moratoriums, resulting in a 14 percent drop in U.S. filings during the fourth quarter, RealtyTrac said.
In all, 2.87 million U.S. homes received a foreclosure notice last year, an increase of 2 percent from 2009, RealtyTrac said. The 2010 figure would have been above 3 million had it not been for the moratoriums, the company said.
“Many of the foreclosure proceedings that were stopped in late 2010 -- which we estimate may be as high as a quarter-million -- will likely be restarted and add to the numbers in early 2011,” said James J. Saccacio, RealtyTrac’s chief executive officer.
Nearly 485,300 Florida properties -- a rate of one in every 18 households -- were the subject of a foreclosure filing in 2010, down 6 percent from the previous year and the lowest monthly activity level since mid-2007. Fueling the decline: December filings fell by more than half.
Still, Florida’s foreclosure rate trailed only those of Nevada and Arizona.
Osceola County had the highest rate among Florida’s 67 counties, at 10 percent. Close behind was Lee County (one in every 12 households) and Broward County (one in 13). Union County, with just 20 foreclosure filings last year, had the lowest rate at one in every 200 households.
Duane Marsteller, Herald staff writer, can be reached at 745-7080, ext. 2630.
