Jacksonville Foreclosure Homes are Hot and Loaded

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The Sunshine state has come a long way where bank foreclosures are concerned. The sad part is that there is no respite from Florida foreclosed homes as it keeps climbing up the charts. Experts who believed that 2007 might bring some relief for homeowners have fled their roost because the prediction didn’t include the ballooning interest rates for sub-prime mortgages. The Florida housing market was once upon a time red hot with investors and homeowners fighting to own a piece of the pie but in the recent past the situation have worsened due to the high rate of delinquencies.

Jacksonville, Duval-FL

Foreclosures in Florida were in excess of 19,144 properties by February 2007 and this was a straight increase of 63.5% as compared to January 2007. The percentage increase also shows that the number of foreclosure homes in the state has nearly doubled over a year. One of the main contributors is Jacksonville, which recorded an increase of 39% and was ranked 27 in 2007 among the top metros in the U.S. The 15,149 homes that went into foreclosure in 2007 represent 1.8% of the actual Florida market.

One of the top counties that led to the increase in Jacksonville foreclosure homes is Duval County, which was ranked 14th based on its foreclosure rate in Florida in October 2007. In 2007, Duval registered around 1,232 homes in different stages of foreclosure and this took its foreclosure rate to one per 298 homes. Most of the other counties in Northeastern Florida recorded lower foreclosure rates with the exception of Clay County, which was ranked 23rd with one foreclosure per 400 homes. The combined rate of all the counties led to Jacksonville bank foreclosures being shot through the roof.