Housing numbers contine to improve in southwest Florida. This time, it’s the foreclosure rate. Charlotte County’s foreclosure rate stood at just over two percent in September, half of what it was the year before and significantly lower than the nearly 12 percent peak recorded in February 2010. Sarasota and Manatee counties also combined at just two percent, down from a 3.7 percent rate last year. This is all good news for the region, especially when compared to Florida’s 2.5 percent foreclosure rate, but the numbers are still high compared to the nationwide average of one-and-a-quarter percent. Similar trends can be found in the mortgage-delinquency rate, which monitors home loans that are more than 90 days past due. Florida has had the highest foreclosure rate in the country for most of the past five years.
