Foreclosure
The number of late payments in Broward County hit 983 in February, a 333 percent increase over the 227 last February, according to Realestat.com, a Plantation-based company that compiles local housing statistics. But Broward had only 315 foreclosures last month, compared with 206 in February 2006.
Last month, Palm Beach County had 733 property owners with late payments, up 382 percent over the 152 last February. But the foreclosures increased at a more modest clip: 141 in February, compared with 115 a year ago.
Both counties saw similar trends emerge in January.
People facing foreclosure typically are behind on their mortgage payments at least 90 days and have been notified by their lenders that they intend to take back the properties, experts say. Many of those homeowners are refinancing the loans or cutting other deals with lenders to keep their homes.
Honey Hartman, 67, of Hollywood is facing a mortgage crunch. A huge property insurance increase this year pushed her monthly mortgage payment to $770, which exceeds her income of $643.
She negotiated with her lender to cut some of the added costs, and her two grown children are helping her make up the rest of the shortfall. Hartman expects she'll ultimately have to sell her two-bedroom home and leave South Florida. "I'm in dire straights," she said.
The Mortgage Bankers' group reported that the percentage of payments that were 30 or more days past due for all loans tracked nationwide jumped to 4.95 percent in the October-to-December quarter. That marked a sharp rise from the third -quarter's delinquency rate of 4.67 percent and was the worst showing since the spring of 2003, when the late-payment rate climbed to 4.97 percent. The association's survey covers 43.5 million loans.
