Search terms, that is. With all the exposure real estate agents are having to foreclosures, you’ll think we would have learned how to spell this term by now. But no, that’s not the case. Just look at our MLS and you'll find at least a couple of variations. Missing the first “e” seems to be a favorite one. So including these misspellings in our searches is almost a given.
"Foreclosures”, “short-sales” and “pre-foreclosures” are terms that have entered most everyone's vocabulary by now. The media talks about them…writes about them and analyses them. We talk about them at the office. Our customers ask for them.
Some areas are more affected than others. But it seems that here in Miami-Dade County no area or neighborhood is "foreclosure" free, including Miami Lakes. I believe that in one way or another most real estate is affected by the "foreclosure" wave that we are going through. I also believe that we are where we are because of greed. The kind of greed that fueled mortgage fraud and that made real estate speculators out of people who didn't even know how to calculate their own mortgage payments. Everyone wanted to get rich...quickly! 
Numbers relate information in a way that often seems devoid of emotion. But many emotions rush to my head and to my heart when I read the statistics below. I don't think they need any commentary. They do speak for themselves.
Miami-Dade County Mortgage Foreclosure Filing Statistics
Year Filings
2002 14,567
2003 11,605
2004 9,606
2005 7,829
2006 9,814
2007 26,391
2008 20,508 (from January through May)
Pictures are even harsher than numbers. They bypass our rational thoughts and hit you with not much warning! Just look at the picture below.
This map shows an area of Broward County, Florida. Each black hammer symbol represents one property in the process of foreclosure. This is a beautiful gated community built around a huge lake.
It is a very sad picture.
But it is what it is. We need to face it and work with it.
By the way, there is a new study done by Harvard University that points at the current housing slump as the worst in the last 50 years. You can download it from this website. The whole version of the report is over 40 pages and covers a lot of interesting information. You can also opt to download only the parts of the report you are interested in.
THanks for sharing the site.
That's why we just use reo's lol.You have a point every one uses different spelling out there.You say tomatos I say tomatoes..oh yea thanks for the site 2
This is very interesting information... WoW ... Just look at the numbers alone in your area.
Griselda, That map was absolutely frightening, seeing all those homes and thinking of all those people. I am seeing it here, signs that say "bank owned." And homes for auction...very sad but your map illustrates the points perfectly.
Lisa Marie, you're welcome!
Cosmo, good idea!You are welcome, too. ;-)
Roland, yes, not a pretty picture, eh?
Carole, it is, isn't it? It is very sad. I believe that as a whole, the housing market will take years to go back to normal. And I mean normal as what it was before the crazy “happy flipping” years.
The graphic with the black hammer is scary- We are seeing a lot of forclo, um foreclose um REO"S in certain areas and especially the lower price points as well To put the blame on banks, lenders, consumers is pointless at the moment, let's just learn, deal with it, and move on.
Where did you get the map, graphic, with the hammer??
Hi Carol, yes, placing blame doesn't solve anything, particularly in situations like this one, where most everyone has some degree of blame, including us, realtors. But I hope that some good regulation comes out of all this, and maybe, just maybe, a bit of commong sense grows out of it too. We'll get out of it. I got this graphic from our MLS.