Ever since the housing market crash, Florida has held the dubious honor of being one of the top states suffering from foreclosures and other major financial issues. If you faced a foreclosure in Miami or elsewhere in the Sunshine State at any point during the past few years, you were far from alone.
As we’ve brought up in recent blog posts, the foreclosure rate has been dropping in Florida, which is good news if you’re trying to get back on your feet. Financial experts are claiming that fewer people are unemployed in Florida, as well as the rest of the country, and the economy continues to improve. According to the Herald-Tribune, the state’s foreclosure backlog is also being addressed and Florida homes are more in demand, leading to a dramatic improvement in the numbers of vacant homes in limbo.
While this news is encouraging, where does our state’s foreclosure rate currently stand? A report by RealtyTrac revealed that Florida had the No. 3 spot in the country for foreclosure filings by the end of November 2015, and all year had about double the number of foreclosures than the rest of the country. Even so, we had 29 percent fewer foreclosures overall in 2015 than we did last year.
We can’t predict what the future will bring if you own or plan to purchase a home in Florida in 2016. However, the facts above may signal a brighter future for owning a home here, whether you are just starting out or plan to retire in the state.