Foreclosures in Manatee County hit their lowest recorded mark six years April as fewer homeowners became delinquent. Perhaps banks strategically slowed the amount of properties seized.
Either way the progress of foreclosures was less than in Sarasota and throughout Florida continuing a trend of improvements during April which has been building! Real Estate analysts aren’t sure if the decline has to do with the economy improving or the banks being in a less burdened position from their foreclosures backlogs resulting from widespread and rampant fraud issues the last 4 years.  There are now an estimated 198,863 foreclosed homes in Florida, with an average sale price of $112,093 says Josh Salaman of the Bradenton Herald.  Experts believe lenders can artificially stabilize the market by repossessing houses strategically, as opposed to flooding the market with the property they have successfully foreclosed upon. Flooding would strip profits from their own bottom line by causing prices to drop. This recovery will not be a miracle turnaround,  it will be a progressive achievement.  Manatee County reported 98 total foreclosures in April, a huge 79 percent drop from March and an even more telling 74 percent drop from the this time last year according RealtyTrac on Wednesday.

April was the best month of foreclosures for Manatee dating back to November 2006, when 80 foreclosures were logged. During the dark days of the foreclosure crisis, that tally was as high as 1,500, records show. In Sarasota, the county’s 622 total foreclosures in April only eased a modest 1.7 percent from March. Those numbers, however, remain 64 percent above totals from a year ago — when foreclosures in Sarasota flirted with pre-recession lows due to the lender moratoriums.

Foreclosure activity across the Sunshine State dropped 8 percent during the month but increased 26 percent from April 2011, boosting the state’s foreclosure rate to the third highest in the nation. One in every 364 Florida housing units had a foreclosure filing in April, according to RealtyTrac.  The economy is improving but the foreclosure problem is here to stay,” said Joseph Lehn, a Sarasota foreclosure attorney. “This is just a lull. There’s no end in sight.”