Foreclosures down in Ft. Myers

FORT MYERS -- Across the state of Florida, 12.22% of all mortgage borrowers were in some state of foreclosure at the end of July, a rate 0.84 percentage points higher than the same time a year ago according to data provided by CoreLogic.

But in Fort Myers, the foreclosure rate is much lower -- and has been dropping for six months.

In the Cape Coral-Fort Myers market, 10.76% of all mortgage borrowers were in some stage of the foreclosure process in July -- still a relatively high rate, to be sure (the U.S. rate is 3.44%), but two percentage points lower than the region's rate a year ago.

The Cape Coral-Fort Myers foreclosure rate has been falling since February, when it was 12.54%.

The market around Collier County is also ahead of the statewide average in terms of loan delinquency. Beyond the 10.76% of area borrowers in foreclosure, another 6.26% are 90 or more days late on their loan payments. Again, that is a high rate (the nationwide delinquency rate is just 7.20%), but Cape Coral-Fort Myers' 17.02% is lower than the statewide rate, which is 17.50%.

In Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, 12.05% of mortgage borrowers were in some state of foreclosure at the end of July, while 16.67% of borrowers were 90 or more days late on payments. In North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota, the foreclosure rate was 11.84%, and the delinquency rate was 16.30%.