About Leon County, FL

We have been keeping an eye on home foreclosures in Tallahassee for several years now and have warned that a log-jam of homes has been accumulating in the shadow inventory. In today’s foreclosure update, we’ll look at the location trend of homes that are being added to the “distressed properties” list in the Tallahassee real estate market.

The foreclosure process begins with a lis pendens filing, so we make sure that we track not only the final foreclosure sale, but also the monthly lis pendens filings in Tallahassee. When we construct a real estate graph of these two important concerns, we find the following picture of foreclosures in Tallahassee.

In the graph above, we see that every month there are hundreds of lis pendens filed in Tallahassee, yet the number of foreclosures rarely reaches a level equivalent to a 20% foreclosure rate. As we have discussed in the past, this might mean that up to 80% of the lis pendens filed in Tallahassee in the past two years have yet to be foreclosed upon.

While there will be some people who are able to work themselves out of the situation through a loan modification, early information suggests that less than 5% of distressed property owners in Tallahassee work out a loan modification.

Others will attempt a short-sale, but without lender support, many homes for sale in Tallahassee attempting short sales are just sitting there waiting for a response from the lender. This is how the shadow inventory of homes in Tallahassee continues to grow each and every month.

Foreclosures By Zip Code In Tallahassee

One report we like to take a look at from time to time is the graph of lis pendens, sorted by the property zip code and month that they were recorded. When we look at this report, we find that some areas are getting hit harder than others. Four zip codes, 32301, 32311, 32312, and 32317 have seen 60% growth or more in lis pendens filed this year versus last year.

Homes For Sale In Tallahassee

By monitoring the condition of homes for sale in Tallahassee, we have noticed that a trend of increased short sale and foreclosure offerings is occurring. The real estate graph below shows that roughly 20% (minimum) of properties fall in the “distressed” categories.

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List Of Recent Lis Pendens Filed In Tallahassee

Wondering how to write an effective and compelling hardship letter?

A hardship letter is your opportunity to appeal to the mortgage company to give you another chance. This should NOT be used to complain about what they have or have not done to make your situation worse. This letter must be honest and represent the facts clearly. If you are pursuing a short sale, the goal is to prove to them that the situation that caused you to fall behind is not temporary and you are not in a position to continue making your payments. However, if you are applying for a loan modification, your hardship letter must prove just the opposite; the situation that caused you to fall behind on your payments was temporary and you are now in the position to make payments and maintain them up to date. You must also have a legitimate excuse for falling behind. Financial problems in itself would not be an adequate excuse. Loss of job, death in the family or an illness would be an acceptable reason to fall behind on your mortgage.

Remember, the hardship letter is just one piece of the workout puzzle. You must meet other criteria for your mortgage company to approve your short sale. If you do not know where to star, visit your local loss mitigation short sale specialist.

Here's an example format of an appropriate hardship letter.