Southwest Florida Still Faces 'Zombie Home' Issues
It may sound like a term from a horror film, however, the zombie foreclosure issue is all too real and happens to be taking Southwest Florida by storm. New reports claim that properties are in a state of limbo after being abandoned by their owners.
"With Halloween just days away, zombie foreclosures — homes abandoned by their owners but not yet seized by lenders — now account for 5.6% of all distressed properties in the Sarasota-Manatee region, according to a new report by real estate researcher Attom Data Solutions," according to National Mortgage News.
"Those undead properties made up 7.4% of homes in foreclosure one year ago."
Zombie foreclosures are on the decline in Sarasota-Manatee though, there are still some homes that have yet to be taken over by borrowers.
Meanwhile, areas like Charlotte County are actually seeing an increase in zombie foreclosures, according to the report. A whopping 291 homes in foreclosure were reported to be vacant in Charlotte County.
"Florida reported 1,963 zombie homes, the third most in the nation. But that translated to a 4.5 percent rate of all foreclosures that ranked 22nd nationwide, the same as last year," according to National Mortgage News.
"The Tampa-St. Petersburg region ranked fifth in the U.S. with 477 zombie foreclosures."
To learn more about zombie foreclosures and regions in which they are the most prevalent, click on the image above.
