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Foreclosures more than doubled in Manatee and Sarasota counties during May and rose 73 percent in Charlotte County.
Southwest Florida followed the national trend, though to a far greater degree: foreclosures nationwide were up 19 percent from April to May and 90 percent year-over-year.
There were 586 new foreclosures in Manatee County during May, for a 164 percent increase.
In Sarasota County, there were 629, for a rise of 104 percent.
Charlotte County saw 217 foreclosures compared with 125 in April, according to RealtyTrac, a California-based real estate data firm.
Florida had the second highest total number of foreclosure filings during May with 21,704, behind only California, with 39,659.
“After a barely perceptible dip in April, foreclosure activity roared back with a vengeance in May,” said James J. Saccacio, RealtyTrac’s chief executive, in a statement on Tuesday.
Saccacio said that the worst of the foreclosure movement might not be over.
“Such strong activity in the midst of the typical spring buying season could foreshadow even higher foreclosure levels later in the year,” he said. “Certainly not every community nationwide is seeing an increase in foreclosures, but foreclosed properties are becoming more commonplace and adding to the downward pressure on home prices in many areas.”
Nationally, May foreclosures — the sum of default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions — totaled 176,137, RealtyTrac said.
Foreclosure activity last month in Florida rose 52 percent from the April and 144 percent from May 2006. The Sunshine State had the fourth highest foreclosure rate in the nation during May, with one home in foreclosure for every 336.
Only California, Nevada and Colorado had higher rates.
Nevada had the worst foreclosure rate in the nation, with one for every 166 households. That was the fifth month in a row that the state held that distinction.
The state reported a total of 5,235 foreclosure filings during May, a 40 percent increase from the previous month and nearly five times the number reported in May 2006.
Colorado had the second highest rate at one for every 290 households — 2.3 times the national average.
The state reported 6,321 foreclosure filings, a nearly 9 percent increase from the previous month and an increase of more than 50 percent from May 2006.
There was a national foreclosure rate of one foreclosure filing for every 656 households during May.
The default rates in the subprime segment of the U.S. mortgage market, which caters to borrowers with poor credit histories, have jumped in recent months as the housing industry has slowed and prices have fallen.
More than two dozen lenders in the subprime mortgage sector — perhaps most prominent New Century Financial Corp. — have collapsed as rising defaults drove them out of business during a downturn in the housing market.
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