Florida foreclosures jump 50%; Tampa up 32 %

Anyone waiting for signs the Tampa Bay real estate market has hit bottom may need to keep waiting.

The pace of foreclosures jumped more than 32 percent in the Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater area, comparing this May to the same month in 2008. Just over 6,100 area homes fell into some form of foreclosure in May - that's one home in every 192 - according to real estate statistics firm RealtyTrac.

That's better than Florida overall, which ranks third in the nation and saw the foreclosure rate jump just more than 50 percent in the same period.

Florida metro areas held three of the top 10 spots: Cape Coral-Fort Myers at No. 6 (one in 82 housing units), Orlando-Kissimmee at No. 8 (one in 101) and Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach at No. 10 (one in 105).

Nationally, the foreclosure rate jumped 18 percent in May, with about one home in 400 falling into foreclosure during the month.

"May foreclosure activity was the third highest month on record and marked the third straight month where the total number of properties with foreclosure filings exceeded 300,000 - a first in the history of our report," said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac.

Mounting foreclosures are one of the most powerful forces on the market price of homes.

The most recent information from the Florida Association of Realtors shows that the Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater metro area has been hit hard. The median sale price of existing homes was $135,800 in March. That's down 24 percent from $178,300 in March 2008.

"You can make a case now that prices are so low on some foreclosed units that it does make sense to buy," said Jack McCabe of McCabe Research. "But the truth is, there are going to be more places like that over the next year." Even this spring, he's seen condo towers in the Tampa area with several hundred units remaining empty.

McCabe said he expects prices to fall over the next year, potentially bottoming out after mid-2010.