Requests for Foreclosure Assistance Expected to Increase in Florida

In Realtor.com’s list of “Top 10 Turnaround Towns”, eight of the cities were in Florida. But a non-profit helping underwater homeowners says it is seeing a different story. InCharge Debt Solutions believes there will an increased need in foreclosure prevention assistance this year in Florida. “Realtor.com’s report showed that some of the state’s markets are showing improvements in new and existing home sales, but there are still some major concerns as Florida’s 2011 statistics showed a foreclosure rate of 11.9 percent and an unemployment rate of 9.9 percent,” said Billie Passmore, InCharge’s Director of Outreach for Housing, in a news release.  “We are hopeful that some of the recent proposed changes in government programs (HAMP, HAFA and HARP) will result in a slowdown in foreclosures and mortgage payment delinquencies.”

According to RealtyTrac, the Orlando area saw large increases in foreclosure filings. In January 2012, filings were up 54 percent compared to one year earlier and 33 percent over December 2011. It is no secret that Orlando appeared on RealtyTrac, Inc.’s Top 10 list of foreclosures listings in the country as recently as October 2011, and the firm’s latest numbers show that we’re not out of the woods yet,” noted Passmore.

Those statistics are what have experts expecting a boost in foreclosure prevention assistance requests. InCharge already saw an increase of 361 percent from 2010 to 2011. “We believe foreclosure filings leveled off in late 2011 due to legal issues and typical end of the year slowness, and in 2012 the need for housing counseling will once again grow,” predicted Passmore.