It looks like 2013 is shaping-up to be an active year for new foreclosure filings in Palm Beach County, Florida.

After slowing a bit in January, the February filings increased by 13% in total filings.  We always say that one month doesn’t make a trend, so we will continue to monitor the monthly filings and see if a pattern develops.

Where we have seen a noticeable increase since our last data release is in the existing foreclosures by city.  Some of the cities have seen 20 to 30% increases in properties with foreclosure filings since our last blog post in Q4 of 2012.

Here are a few of the Palm Beach County, Florida cities that have the highest level of existing foreclosures:

• West Palm Beach has 3,403 single family and 1212 condo/townhouse properties in foreclosure
• Lake Worth has 2,236 single family and 212 condo/townhouse properties in foreclosure
• Boca Raton has 2,172 single family and 845 condo/townhouse properties in foreclosure
• Delray Beach has 958 single family and 554 condo/townhouse properties in foreclosure
• Jupiter has 901 single family and 193 condo/townhouse properties in foreclosure

These are just a few of the cities with elevated levels of residential properties in foreclosure.  Keep in mind that foreclosure activity by all of the major banks came to an abrupt halt back in October of 2010 due to the robo-signing litigation.  After the mortgage settlement in April 2012, banks are ready to begin foreclosure activity again.  In case you missed it, below is a recent chart from Realtytrac with the state of Florida leading the pack with “Zombie Foreclosures”, not to mention all of the owner-occupied properties that haven’t made a mortgage payment in years.  At some point, these properties will hit the market.