Florida Ranks Third Highest In Foreclosures And Preforeclosures

October 10, 2008 2:24 p.m. EST

Tallahassee, FL (AHN) - With the November presidential election approaching, swing state Florida is holding steady in an undesirable category, the state ranks third highest rate for foreclosures in the nation.

Florida posted 29,591 real estate owned filings, or when the bank repossesses a foreclosure property, for the third quarter of the year. Only California, with 89,450 filings, and Arizona, with 31,882, ranked worse than Florida, according to the U.S. Foreclosure Index report from Foreclosures.com.

Nationwide foreclosures are expected to reach 1 million by the end of the year while preforeclosures are forecast to reach 2 million.

Preforeclosures include notices of default or a foreclosure auction prior to actual foreclosure.

Florida also ranked third in the nation for preforeclosures for the first nine months of this year.

In that category Florida had 64.2 year-to-date preforeclosure filings per 1,000 households, which was up a whopping 165.6 percent from the same period in 2007. Only Nevada, with 77.8 filings per 1,000 households, and Arizona, with 74.6 filings per 1,000 households, had more filings than Florida.