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Glut of Unsold Houses in South Florida Despite Decrease in Foreclosures

By admin | December 26, 2008

Despite a decline in South Florida foreclosures in October compared to September, the backlog of unsold houses in the area still increased to the time-equivalent of eight months in October.

Concerned by their exceptionally high inventory of foreclosed homes, mortgage banks have been unloading repossessed homes, adding more units to the housing market already overloaded with a high inventory of unsold repo homes.

Even with unusually large discounts from mortgage banks and unusually low prices offered by real estate brokers, the backlog of unsold houses has not declined. Apparently, homebuyers and investors are still weighing their options, waiting for further discounts and analyzing how long they would hold on to their investments before they could make a return.

The glut of unsold houses has been hurting home developers, who have built homes that they could not sell because of thousands of comparable foreclosed homes priced much cheaper than theirs. They also have downsized their building operations and cut jobs, increasing the number of the jobless in the process.

Nationally, housing starts in October dropped by 4.5 percent to 791,000 units, based on a report released by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Despite this decline, the rising inventory of unsold homes across the country has not abated.

For a look at South Florida foreclosures in October 2008, here are the figures:

In Broward County, Fort Lauderdale had the highest number of foreclosed homes with 488 units foreclosed, followed by Hollywood with 387 units foreclosed and Miramar with 380 units foreclosed.

In Miami-Dade County, Miami topped the list with 2980 units foreclosed. Following were Hialeah with 679 units foreclosed and Homestead with 602 units foreclosed.

In Palm Beach County, West Palm Beach had the highest number of foreclosures with 796 units foreclosed, followed by Lake Worth with 406 units foreclosed and Boca Raton with 370 units foreclosed.

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