SARASOTA, FLORIDA, November 21, 2017 – Prospective home buyers hunting for low-priced distressed properties in Florida will have to try a little harder. RealtyTrac, the Irving, California-based real estate information company, reported recently that September foreclosure filings in the state slipped by 39 percent from a year earlier and by 29 percent from August.
This state-wide foreclosure decline has been evident in the Sarasota-Manatee region. A separate report by data provider CoreLogic showed that mortgage delinquencies in the two counties slipped to 3.5 percent of total mortgages in July from the 4.6 percent slice a year ago. The same report put July foreclosures at 0.9 percent of the mortgages in the area, the fifth month in a row that the count came in below 1 percent.
The fewer homes at risk of foreclosure have been translating into diminished supply and declining sales of distressed properties in the market. Figures from national research firm ATTOM Data Solutions showed that 11 percent of total sales in the North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton metropolitan area are either short sales, bank-owned sales or foreclosures during the 2017 third quarter.
Breaking down this regional tally indicated Sarasota having 294 of its total homes sold for the 2017 third quarter as distressed sales, down from the 395 distressed sales in the 2016 third quarter. In Manatee County, distressed home sales dropped to 226 from 334 during the same year-to-year comparative period.
Significantly, ATTOM also noted a decline in the region’s zombie foreclosures—residences that their owners have abandoned but aren’t seized by their lenders yet. These abandoned properties currently account for 5.6 percent of all distressed homes in the Sarasota-Manatee area, down from 7.4 percent a year earlier.
The research firm also ranked the region at 37th in the 149 major U.S. metro areas it measured for zombie foreclosures, a marked improvement from its 25th place last year. ATTOM analysts noted that zombie foreclosures have declined substantially during the last four years, as a depleted inventory pushed even some of the most highly distressed properties to be absorbed by the housing market.
Search of a deal on a distressed property in Sarasota could be fruitful at Cedar Grove, a development by Centex in North Port. A short sale was listed here in October for a five-bedroom home with two baths and a half bath. Built in 2007 with a floor area of 3,270 square feet, it carries a tag price in the mid-$300s. Its community amenities include a neighborhood pool and cabana, barbecue grills, and a children’s play area.
A similar hunt for a distressed home in Manatee could be productive too at the deed-restricted community of Oakley Place in Ellenton. Also in October, a short sale was listed in this community of 121 homes just east of Interstate 75. This residence, built in 2005, features four bedrooms, three baths and a half bath. It is priced in the low $200s and may well be the prize for a diligent hunter of distressed properties in our region.
SARASOTA, FLORIDA, October 7, 2019 – Property values of communities in the Sarasota-Manatee region now face lesser threat from neighborhood eyesores brought about by abandoned, foreclosed homes. Known in the real estate trade as zombie foreclosures, these properties have shrunk significantly in the region. According to an August report of ATTOM Data Solutions, abandoned […] more>>