Government-run Fannie Mae, the largest holder of foreclosed houses with an inventory of 107,225 repossessed homes as of Sept. 30, plans to sell most of them one-by-one after a bulk sale of 2,500 properties last year. The U.S. is the biggest owner of Florida foreclosures with 23,405, an increase of 50 percent over its total in 2011, according to RealtyTrac.
Bank Inventory
Florida’s bank-owned inventory at Dec. 31 was 83,697, up 6.8 percent from 2011. It had the highest share of foreclosure supply compared with other states for the U.S., Bank of America Corp. and Well Fargo & Co., and the second-highest portion for JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. and Ally Financial Inc., according to RealtyTrac.
Nationwide, the number of unique U.S. properties that received a foreclosure filing last year fell 3 percent to more than 1.83 million from 1.9 million in 2011, and decreased 36 percent from 2.9 million in the 2010 peak year. About 1.39 percent of households got at least one filing, down from 1.45 percent and 2.3 percent, RealtyTrac said.
Florida led with the most properties in some stage of mortgage distress at 305,766, or 20 percent of the U.S. total. California followed at 212,172, or 14 percent; Illinois was third at 135,858, or 9 percent; and Ohio was fourth at 76,015, or 5 percent.
Vacation Destination
In Naples on Florida’s gulf coast, an established vacation destination for decades, median prices last year rose 17 percent to $204,000, said Brenda Fioretti, residential agent at Prudential Florida Realty and former president of the Naples Area Board of Realtors. It was the biggest annual gain since 2006, one of the bright spots for the state in 2012.
“Naples is unique because investors are attracted to our second homes,” Fioretti said in an interview. “We’ve always been a high-priced area and don’t have much of a starter home inventory. Back in 2004 and 2005, people were buying everything they could. They thought they’d just turn right around and sell, and then they couldn’t get rid of them.”