This morning's headlines in the Palm Beach Post read "Foreclosures triple across region." A year ago Palm Beach County had 542 notices of foreclosure sent to local homeowners. This November, there were 1671 sent out, a 208% increase. That means one foreclosure for every 371 households. Neighboring St.Lucie County is even worse, with a 239% increase. Prices in these counties have been dropping precipitously in recent months, but owners have mostly tried to hold on to boom-time prices, hoping for a turnaround...or at least for things to stabilize.
RealtyTrac, back in California, hasn't released national figures for November yet, but in October, Florida saw one foreclosure for every 273 homeowners,as opposed to one in 555 households, nationwide.
During my annual visit to Florida last winter, my sister and her husband took me to an Open House at a new housing development around a private lake. There was a festive atmosphere, with refreshments and a large crowd of potential buyers looking at the beautifully staged homes. Many of them were already sold. Now they tell me that most are sitting empty, and the others have lost value.
California's looking pretty good.
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