Mortgage foreclosure rate dips in Orlando, Fla., region

The Orlando area's home-foreclosure rate remained higher than the national average in the third quarter but was improved from earlier in the year, bucking a nationwide trend of a rise in problem loans, according to a survey released Friday.

Metro Orlando's rate dipped 1.4 percent from the second to third quarter, according to RealtyTrac, a California-based company that tracks foreclosures.

The company ranked Metro Orlando 30th among the nation's 100 largest metro areas in terms of the rate at which local loans entered some stage of foreclosure. But it also noted that Orlando was one of "only a handful" of areas where the rate of problem loans declined during the three months that ended Sept. 30.

The average change in foreclosure rates nationally was a 17 percent increase.

Still, the Orlando area's foreclosure/pre-foreclosure rate was about 1.5 times that of the national average, with one household out of every 231 entering some stage of foreclosure. The metro area consists of Orange, Seminole, Osceola and Lake counties.

Detroit led the nation with the worst foreclosure/pre-foreclosure rate -- one new filing for every 80 households -- which was more than 4.5 times the national average, RealtyTrac said.

Filings tracked by the company include pre-foreclosure notices of default, notices of trustee sale and foreclosure sale, and notices of properties repurchased by a bank.

Another company that tracks foreclosures said this week that foreclosures across Florida rose 21 percent from September to October, though the Orlando area had fewer homes and condos entering some stage of foreclosure during the month.

Foreclosures were still on the rise in South Florida during October, including Palm Beach, Miami-Dade and Broward counties, according to Default Research of Mount Pleasant, Pa.

Serdar Bankaci, president and chief executive officer of Default Research, said Orange County fared better, noting that "the Orlando region is not being hit with the explosive foreclosure activity because their real estate prices did not rise as drastically as in the southern part of the state."