At some point the chatter about a housing recovery will have to temper, because you cannot put a positive spin on over 2,000 new foreclosure filings in each of the last two months and a shadow inventory of foreclosures that is nearly 70,000 properties. First, here is a look at the new foreclosure filings on a monthly basis.

In the month of September, there were 1,694 houses and 626 condo/townhouse properties entering the foreclosure process in Broward County and for October, the numbers rose to 1,829 houses and 655 condo/townhouses.  That represents a 7% month over month increase.  To better illustrate the trend, here is what the numbers look like when you combine the two property types.

So far in 2013, there have been 20,373 new foreclosure filings in Broward County through the month of October.  To add some perspective, there were only 15,983 throughout all of 2012.  As far as the monthly average of new filings, 2012 had a monthly average of 1,332 and 2013 so far has an average of 2,037 new filings per month.  That represents a 53% increase year over year!

Now we will take a look at the massive shadow inventory of foreclosures and breakdown the numbers by city.  Although the elevated pace of new foreclosure filings is a problem, it is more disturbing that the new filings are being piled on top of nearly 70,000 existing foreclosures that are still looming.

Believe it or not, our chart shows a bit less of what is really out there because several cities have reached the maximum search results of 5,000 units.  Feel free to click on the chart to see the cities in detail, but a few of the cities with the highest level of residential properties in foreclosure as of 11/15/13:

• Fort Lauderdale has over 5,000 houses and 1,235 condo/townhouse properties in foreclosure
• Miramar has over 5,000 houses and 1,000 condo/townhouse properties in foreclosure
• Pembroke Pines has over 5,000 houses and 974 condo/townhouse properties in foreclosure
• Sunrise has 3,446 houses and 900 condo/townhouse properties in foreclosure
• Coral Springs has 3,232 houses and 1,349 condo/townhouse properties in foreclosure
• Pompano Beach has 2,941 houses and 1,268 condo/townhouse properties in foreclosure

In summary, there isn’t a single city in Broward County, Florida that is immune to this problem.  Although the media has tried to sweep this matter under the rug since the housing bust, it continues to resurface.  The South Florida housing market will not recover until these foreclosures are processed and the properties are sold to buyers who actually pay the monthly mortgage payments.  The average foreclosure takes over 900 days in Florida since it is a judicial state, so this “illness” may take a few years to cure.  The time to sell REO inventory was that last few years when interest rates were at all-time lows, because as rates slowly creep back up as shown in this last chart, housing affordability will slowly slip away.