Tampa Foreclosed Homes for Sale Tracked Thru City Registry CreditCardsMasterInfo

Tampa Foreclosed Homes for Sale Tracked Thru City Registry

Filed Under (Uncategorized) by admin on 26-12-2009

Tampa foreclosed homes for sale will be tracked by a city registry that will be set up after city officials approved an ordinance requiring banks and other property owners to register any property that they foreclose within ten days of filing their foreclosure actions and to maintain the properties.

According to Jake Slater, head of code enforcement for Tampa, the registry ordinance will go into effect immediately but the registry program will probably be set up in 45 days. He added that there will be a registration fee but the amount will still to be determined.

City officials said that the registry will help the city quickly identify entities responsible for the maintenance of vacant properties and enable officials to serve legal notices for code violations. The new ordinance will force property owners and lending institutions to maintain their foreclosed properties.

Based on city records, over 8,000 properties have been foreclosed over the past 6 months and over 1,000 properties have been left vacant last year 2008.

Councilman John Dingfelder, in his statement before voting, encouraged his fellow officials to support the ordinance because vacant properties have become a significant problem for the city. According to a recent report from a California-based foreclosure research firm, the number of Tampa foreclosed homes for sale is still high despite a nine-percent decline in foreclosure filings in the city in November compared to filings last year.

Foreclosure filings in the Tampa Bay area also dropped by one percent from October, pushing down the foreclosure rate in the area to one foreclosure for every 214 residential units.

In contrast, the pace of foreclosures statewide surged by 8 percent from last year and by 2 percent from October. With its increased foreclosure pace, Florida replaced second-placer California in a ranking of states based on foreclosure rates.

According to Tampa city officials, under the new ordinance, lenders or other property owners that do not maintain and secure their foreclosed properties will be fined from $75 to $450 depending on the frequency of offense. For recalcitrant offenders, the city will clean up the vacant properties and then place liens on the properties to recoup expenses.

Hillsborough County, where Tampa is located, has implemented a foreclosure registry in the first week of November, and has already registered 35 foreclosed properties.

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