Report: Foreclosure activity up in October - South Florida Business Journal:

Lenders filed an average of 272 foreclosure actions in South Florida each day in October, an 8 percent increase from the same time last year, according to Condo Vultures report.

The October activity is also an 86 percent increase from 2007, which could mean more trouble for the residential real estate market.

But, the overall pace of foreclosures is slowing for the year, said Peter Zalewski, managing principal of Bal Harbour-based real estate consultancy Condo Vultures, which tracks sales activity in the tri-county area.

Condo Vultures projects that 2009 will log 98,000 actions this year based on the pace of foreclosure filings to date. The high volume of activity earlier in the year put the tri-county area on pace for 102,000 foreclosure filings.

“Foreclosure filings are up from last year, but beginning to slow in volume compared to a quarter or two ago," Zalewski said.

Looking at the first 10 months of the year, lenders filed foreclosures against 75,000 properties in 2008 and 33,000 in 2007. Foreclosures through the end of October this year represent a 28 percent increase compared to the same period last year.

Broward is leading the pack, with a 21 percent year-over-year jump – with 4,002 foreclosure actions filed in October. Miami-Dade saw its foreclosure activity grow by 10 percent, and Palm Beach actually saw its numbers drop by 9 percent.

The rise in foreclosure activity does not coincide with a rise in inventory, as would be expected. In fact, South Florida’s residential resale inventory dropped 1.1 percent on a week-over-week basis on Nov. 2, to 69,342 single-family houses, townhouses, and condominium units, according to the report produced using Florida Association of Realtors data.