People who bought bank owned homes in Florida in the first quarter this year got an average price discount of 38 percent, according to a RealtyTrac report. Those who bought short sale homes got an average price discount of 21 percent.
For all bank owned and short sale homes sold, the average sales price was $121,394, lower by 28.4 percent than the average price of non-foreclosures. As the substantial price discounts attracted buyers, a total of 35,410 short sale and bank owned homes in Florida were sold during the quarter, accounting for nearly 39 percent of all homes sold throughout the state.
For the first time in a long series of nationwide foreclosure charts released over the past couple of years, Florida was not on the top five. In all previous charts of foreclosure rates and totals, Florida was always in the top five.
The 5 states with the biggest average price discounts were Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois, California and Tennessee while the 5 states with the biggest percentages of foreclosure sales were Nevada, California, Arizona, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. This meant that new homes and existing homes still dominated home sales in Florida and that distressed house prices in the state did not plunge as steeply as in other states.
Even in South Florida, where the housing crisis drove the most number of foreclosures in the state, the percentage of distressed and REO sales did not exceed the 50-percent mark. The 10,685 foreclosure homes sold in the first quarter accounted for 40 percent of total house sales and sold at an average price of $134,191, lower by 30.2 percent than non-foreclosures.
Broward County posted the biggest foreclosure sales total, which was 4,977. Miami-Dade followed with 3,871 units and Palm Beach County was third with 1,837 units. Buyers of Miami-Dade homes got the highest price discount, which was 39.5 percent. Palm Beach sellers offered an average of 22.4 percent while Broward sellers gave a 21.8-percent average discount. Broward posted the lowest average price at $123,270. Miami-Dade was next with $141,921 and Palm Beach posted the highest at $148,458.
In April and in May, the pace of foreclosure in Florida slowed on a year-over-year basis. The pace even slowed in April both over the year and over the month. Foreclosure filings dropped by more than 25 percent over the year in April and dropped by nearly 14 percent over the year in May.
The outlook for the Florida housing market has been improving when the BP deepwater oil drilling rig accident occurred on April 20 and caused an oil spill that has affected Gulf Coast communities from Florida to Louisiana.
It is hoped however that the resilience of Florida in surpassing challenges will shine through and continue to lift up the statewide housing market.
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