Florida Mortgages Continue to Head into Default

The country’s Southeast region continued to hemorrhage foreclosure filings last month, with the Florida housing market the hardest hit.

Nearly 11,500 Florida property owners filed for foreclosure in January, accounting for just over half of the entire Southeast region’s 20,199 filings, according to Foreclosures.com, a California-based real estate investment advisory firm.

Adding to the dismal numbers, the regional total is almost half of the 46,933 filings for all of first quarter 2006. Florida home loan defaults are taking place at a record pace.

However, the worst of the market slump is over, according to Alexis McGee, president of Foreclosures.com.

“We’re just not through yet with the aftereffects of all the people who used creative financing to buy homes beyond their means - especially in coastal and resort areas in the Southeast,” McGee said in a release.

“Payments on those creative mortgages have ballooned, home prices stagnated and homeowners’ equity eroded. Many overextended homeowners are left with little option but foreclosure.”

Specifically, McGee is referring to bad credit home loans that appear like a safe option initially. However, rates eventually increase and owners are left in an unaffordable, untenable position.