The housing crunch rages on, as more South Floridians behind on their mortgage payments are losing their homes in foreclosure sales after failing to work out deals with lenders.
Scheduled sales in Broward County hit 2,568 last month, more than a fivefold increase over the 426 in April 2007, according to Realestat.com, a Plantation-based research firm.
In Palm Beach County, there were 785 scheduled sales in April, a 370 percent increase over the 167 from a year ago.
Escalating home values from 2000 to 2005 caused many buyers to overextend themselves. They took out short-term, adjustable-rate mortgages that now are resetting much higher. Florida continues to have one of the nation’s highest foreclosure rates. “Our expectation is that we’ll see more repossessions by the banks over the next few months,” West Palm Beach housing analyst Brad Hunter said Wednesday. “It’s not a pretty sight.”
