Record 10,700 homes lost in ’07
Lee foreclosures may get worse, experts say

A record wave of foreclosures in 2007 crested in the last three months of the year — but experts warn the worst may still be yet to come. The monthly numbers were leveling off as the year ended, but that may not last. “I think that’s just the lack of productivity because of the holidays,” said mortgage broker Jeff Tumbarello of Network Funding Solutions in Fort Myers. “I think there’s a glut of foreclosures; the system just can’t file them.” For the year, there were a record 10,700 in Lee County, according to statistics released Thursday by the Southwest Florida Real Estate Investors Association. That’s compared to 3,923 in 2006, according to records. December saw 1,441 foreclosures, including 433 on homes that were the primary residence for a family. For the year, there were 7,324 single-family foreclosures. That’s 4 percent of the county’s 180,305 single-family homes. Most of the year’s foreclosures were filed since August, Tumbarello said. Prior to that, the monthly numbers were in the hundreds.

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  thanks to Politics in the Zeros

Bob Morris had interesting comments to make on the above article:

Foreclosure tsunami coming

That wave is nowhere near creating, as millions of ARM resets come due this year, which means sharply higher mortgage payments for those whose home is no doubt dropping in value too. Many will walk away from the house, either voluntarily or involuntarily. So, what happens to communities like Fort Meyers when huge numbers of foreclosures tanks their real estate market and economy? Blocks and blocks of mostly vacant homes and a city government no longer able to provide basic services because the tax base evaporated are some obvious results. This will trigger a further exodus of residents and businesses, making things even worse. I genuinely think we will be seeing dead towns as a result of the real estate collapse. What happens when large numbers of people lose their homes? Where do they go? Will we have any real safety nets for them to bounce off of?

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