By Scott Blake |
Banks and other mortgage servicers are holding many homes in foreclosure without putting them up for sale, according to local market watchers.
In fact, Florida leads the nation by far in vacant homes in foreclosure, with more than 55,000 homes in foreclosure sitting empty, according to a recent report by RealtyTrac Inc., a California firm that tracks foreclosures nationwide.
The situation is tightening the Miami’s area housing supply, helping drive up prices — perhaps at too fast a rate, market watchers say.
“The banks tell me [foreclosures] are still bogged down in the court system — that’s the [only] answer I really ever get,” says Ron Shuffield, president of Esslinger Wooten Maxwell Realtors in Miami.
“In most cases,” he adds, “banks want to get these properties off of their books, but they’re being held up in court…. Many of these cases are contested” by the homebuyers or the occupants.
However it plays out, Mr. Shuffield would like to see banks free up more homes in foreclosure and put them back on the market.
“We could handle another 4,000 to 5,000 units on the market,” he says. “It would temper the increases in price.”
A reason many homes in foreclosure aren’t back on the market is because a lot of those properties are occupied, either by buyers or renters, says Liza Mendez, of Pedro Realty International, chairwoman elect of the Miami Association of Realtors.”
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