If there’s one sign that the Tampa Bay area has recovered from the housing crash, this could be it: New foreclosure filings in Hillsborough County have plunged to levels not seen for a decade. For the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, there were only 2,786 new filings. That was almost 12,400 less than in 2008-2009 and less than half the amount in 2006-2007, when the market had yet to go into free fall with foreclosures.
Foreclosures in Hillsborough County have fell beneath pre-housing market crash
“This is tangible evidence of the real estate recovery we have been seeing,’’ said Pat Frank, Hillsborough’s clerk of court. “It’s really great news for Tampa’s economy, which is still closely tied to the housing market. Let’s hope the trend continues.”
Final figures for other bay area counties are not yet available, but new foreclosure filings there are also on track to lower below boom-time levels.
Lenders began foreclosing on Hillsborough homes in large numbers in 2008 – the year the global financial system nearly crashed – and filed an all-time 15,164 new foreclosure actions in 2009.
Until October 2012, homes with a final judgement of foreclosure were auctioned on the courthouse steps. That month, Hillsborough switched to online foreclosures run by an organization called Real Auction; it has auctioned off 3,580 homes for a total of $606 million.
“In 2012, before (Real Auction), we had eight clerks dedicated to foreclosures,’’ said Tom Scherberger, director of communications for the clerk’s office. “Today we have five. Some of the decrease is because the numbers of foreclosures have gone down significantly but Real Auction did help because before online auctions we had a couple of clerks tied up all day dealing with auctions at the courthouse.’’
With few homeowners delinquent on their mortgages, foreclosures should continue to drop. In August, 4.8% of borrowers were more than 90 days late on payments when compared with 7.13 % a year earlier.