Foreclosures dramatically increase in Tampa Bay over last year
The high foreclosure rates statewide and locally are consistent with a June study.

By Grace Mamon
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Aug 11, 2021

Nationwide foreclosure filings in July slightly decreased from the previous month but were still up 40% from a year ago, and in the Tampa Bay area, year-over-year foreclosure filings were significantly higher.

The high foreclosure rates statewide and locally are consistent with a June ATTOM study, which reported that Florida had the third-highest foreclosure rate in the country, despite national all-time lows.>In July 2020, there were only 20 foreclosure filings in the Tampa Bay metro area. In July 2021, there were 215, a staggering 975% increase.

This was most pronounced in Pasco County, which saw a 1425% increase year-over-year, and least evident in Hernando County, which only saw a 150% increase.

Still, Tampa Bay was not among the metros with the highest foreclosure rates. Those included Atlantic City, New Jersey, Macon, Georgia, and Las Vegas.

Nationwide, one in every 11,009 housing units had a foreclosure filing in July 2021, according to California-based property database ATTOM, which conducted this study.

In the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metro area, this number is one in every 6,605.

These numbers reflect the last month before the government moratorium ends.

“The end of the government’s moratorium won’t result in millions of foreclosures, but we’re likely to see a steady increase in default activity for the balance of the year,” Rich Sharga, executive vice president of RealtyTrac, an ATTOM company, said in the release.

Reinstating foreclosure proceedings on properties that have already been in default before the pandemic, combined with new foreclosure activity on vacant and abandoned properties, will account for much of the foreclosure volume, Sharga said in the release.

Florida had the second-highest number of real estate-owned properties, meaning the property is owned by a lender because it failed to sell in a foreclosure auction after the borrower defaulted. There were 172 REOs in Florida, surpassed only by Illinois with 230.

Nationwide REOs are up 5% from last month and up 12% from last year, according to the release.

And though foreclosure starts are up 45% nationwide from a year ago, this doesn’t mean a similar number of bank repossessions.

“Homeowner equity is at an all-time high, and many financially distressed borrowers should have the opportunity to sell their homes, probably at a profit, rather than lose them to a foreclosure auction,” Sharga said in the release.

The high foreclosure rates statewide and locally are consistent with a June ATTOM study, which reported that Florida had the third-highest foreclosure rate in the country, despite national all-time lows.